thinly populated

参院選における「一票の格差」は2013年に比べ, 3.08倍と減少をみせました。選挙権の年齢引き下げなどを受け, 今後の変化が注目されています。

Upper house vote-value gap decreases to 3.08 times

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The maximum vote-value disparity between House of Councilors electoral districts has slumped to 3.08 times from 4.77 times in the 2013 upper house election, a Jiji Press estimate based on government data showed Wednesday.

The improvement followed a law revision to reorganize some electoral districts and adjust seat allocations after vote-value gaps in the 2013 poll were deemed by the Supreme Court to be in a “state of unconstitutionality.”

In the reorganization, two pairs of thinly populated neighboring prefectural constituencies — Tottori and Shimane, and Tokushima and Kochi — were integrated.

According to the internal affairs ministry data, the total number of registered voters stood at 106,600,408, of whom 106,494,879 lived in Japan.

By constituency, the number was the largest in Tokyo, with 11,194,225 and the smallest in Fukui, with 659,011.

以下省略

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003034585

本日気になった表現は “thinly populated” です。

“thinly” には「薄く, 細く」という意味がありますが, 『リーダーズ英和中辞典』(研究社)を調べると, “thinly populated” で「人口まばらで」とありました。英英辞典で “thinly populated” の定義を確認することはできませんでしたが, 上記の意味から「有権者数の少ない地域」を指していることがわかります。

以上より, 今回の “two pairs of thinly populated neighboring prefectural-” は, 「格差是正のため, 選挙区を合併した２地域―鳥取と島根, 徳島と高知」を表現しています。( Cayu )