The Supreme Court's Grand Bench will hand down a ruling on the 18th on whether a Public Offices Election Act provision that denies all prisoners the right to vote violates the constitution, Kyodo News reported, a case that could mark a major turning point for the system.
The plaintiff is Kenjiro Yagihashi, 40. He served a seven-year prison term after a fraud conviction was finalized.
The law denies voting rights to prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment with work or heavier — now called imprisonment — and he was unable to vote in the 2021 lower house election and other ballots.
The Grand Bench may address how voting restrictions should work and make a constitutional judgment on them.
A 2005 precedent
The plaintiff's side focused on a 2005 Supreme Court ruling in a case over the voting rights of Japanese nationals abroad. That decision held that restrictions on voting rights are in principle not permitted.
Restrictions are allowed only when there is an unavoidable reason, the court said. It defined that as a case in which it is effectively impossible or extremely difficult to allow the exercise of voting rights while ensuring the fairness of elections.
The plaintiff, who filed suit in 2022, argues that no such reason applies to prisoners. The provision therefore violates the constitution's guarantee of voting rights, the plaintiff's side contends.
The government countered that prisoners have severely violated the legal order and cannot be expected to exercise voting rights fairly.