Lower house seat allocation to be reviewed to narrow vote weight gap

The Japanese government's electoral reform panel will soon begin reviewing the allocation of lower house seats in some of the country's 47 prefectures based on the census released Friday, with an aim to amend vote weight disparities.Preliminary data of the 2020 census showed that a disparity in the weight of a single vote between the most and least populated single-seat constituencies stands at 2.09 times. The Supreme Court has found levels above 2.0 times constitutionally problematic.The panel is expected to recommend a total of 10 seats to be shifted to Tokyo and four prefectures from eac…READ FULL ARTICLE