ABSTRACT
Unique in many respects among the electoral systems of democratic nations, Japan’s electoral laws have had a significant impact on the nation’s post-war political party system. On April 14, 1976, the Japanese Supreme Court issued a decision that initially appeared to have the potential to radically alter the post-war patterns of the nation’s politics. The court’s 8-to-7 decision ruled that the allocation of lower house seats was unconstitutional because of malapportionment, which denied equal rights to urban voters as guaranteed by the Japanese constitution. The reform of election laws involves issues that go far beyond the problem of adjusting seat allocation to fairly represent different groups or classes of voters. Japanese election campaigns are conducted under a set of comprehensive laws deemed to be the most restrictive in the democratic world. The campaign restrictions have done little to reduce the costs of election campaigning but have had other serious outcomes.
