List of Issues:

1. Does the Japanese government guarantee all Japanese nationals, irrespective of their place of residence, the political rights provided for under Article 25 of the Covenant?
   
   
2. Why does the Revised Public Offices Elections Law (promulgated in May 1998) limit the right to vote for Japanese nationals abroad only to the nationwide proportional representation system for national elections? In the future, is the government considering allowing Japanese who reside abroad to vote for candidates in the prefectural constituencies system? If so, when?
   
   
3. Is the Japanese government considering making some kind of redress to those who were not allowed to vote, before the revised law was implemented, on the grounds that they were not residing in Japan?

Background:

Article 42 of the Public Offices Elections Law establishes that those who are not registered voters are not allowed to vote. Article 21, paragraph 1 of the law stipulates that those who can register themselves as voters must be Japanese nationals who are at least 20 years old, who have maintained a residence in a local municipality in Japan, and who have been consecutively recorded in the local municipality's residency register system for at least three months. Therefore, Japanese nationals are not allowed to vote if they have not lived in Japan for 3 months and are not registered with a local municipality. Moreover, Japanese nationals who live abroad and are not registered with a local municipality in Japan cannot vote even if they return to Japan on the day of the election. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (fiscal 1992), about six hundred eighty thousand Japanese nationals live abroad; there must be hundreds of thousands of Japanese who are not allowed to exercise their right to vote.

In November of 1996, a number of Japanese nationals who reside abroad filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court claiming their right to vote. They argue that the Public Offices Elections Law, in denying suffrage to Japanese living overseas, is illegal, and they seek compensation from the state for not having been allowed to vote.

In June of 1997, the Japanese government submitted to the Diet the Partially Amended Public Offices Elections Law Concerning the Establishment of an Election System Abroad (Revised Elections Law). The Revised Elections Law was adopted in April 1998 and promulgated in May 1998. The new law is designated to come into force by cabinet order within two years from the date of promulgation. The Revised Election Law allows Japanese nationals overseas who are at least twenty years old, through a Japanese consulate, to apply to the municipality of their last residence in Japan for registration as a voter living abroad. By doing so they are able to vote while abroad at a place that is specified by the overseas diplomatic establishment (such as the embassy, etc.). In addition, voting by mail has been introduced for certain areas.

However, the elections in which they can vote are limited to the nationwide proportional representation system for the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors, and they are denied participation in voting for candidates who run under the single-seat prefectural constituencies system for both Houses. The reasons for this limitation that are given by the Japanese government are that 1) it is difficult to publicize the names, political views, and political affiliations of candidates in a limited campaign period, and 2) overseas diplomatic establishments are not provided with sufficient personnel. However, these reasons, also employed before the enactment of Revised Elections Law to entirely deny suffrage for overseas Japanese, are only technical and can never stand as a basis to deny suffrage, a foundation of democracy.

Compensation from the state claimed by those who were denied the chance to vote by the former Public Offices Elections Law, which was illegal, should be granted since the Revised Elections Law does not provide remedies for past illegal conditions.