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Originally Posted by Autumn Demon
Questions about Japanese politics:
I've heard that because of Japan's voting system, rural voters have three times the voting power as urban voters. Is it really that bad?
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Yes. Article 14 of the Constitution provides for the equality of individuals, which entails that each person should have equal power in voting. However, because of the rapid demographic movement from rural areas to cities, it has been often that a person in an electoral district has much more power than in another. The Supreme Court has sometimes declared the unconstitutionality of such unequal elections. It seems that the borderline between clearly unconstitutional and doubtful grey is 1:3. In the general election of 1986, the worst inequality was 1 : 2.92, and the Court did not declared its illegality (*1). In 1990, the ratio was 1 : 3.18, and the election was blamed as unconstitutional. (*2)
*1: S.C. 1988/Oct/21, Civil Cases Vol 42, No 8, p.644.
*2: S.C. 1994/Jan/20, Civil Cases Vol 47, No 1, p.67.
In principle, if the ratio exceeds 1:2, such election should be unconstitutional, I think. But the Court cares not to violate the separation of powers; the electoral legislation is under the jurisdiction of the Diet. The Court tends to refrain from exercising its decisive power unless the inequality is terribly intolerable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Autumn Demon
Also, do factions within one party compete against each other in elections in the same constituencies? If not, how is it decided which faction gets their candidate on the ballot for a district? Do they have primaries?
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Under the today's electoral system for House of Representatives, which is called 小選挙区制 or system of small electoral districts, one party nominates only one candidate to a district. Japan has also proportional representative system (for the House of Councillors and a part of House of Representatives), but in this case, each party must make a list of nominees; each candidate is numbered for priority.
Before 1993, the members of House of Representatives had been elected in a system called 中選挙区制 or system of middle electoral districts. More than one candidates were elected in one district. Under this system, factions frequently fought each other. Sometimes the internal troubles caused other parties' victory.