A Japanese court ruled Tuesday that the vote weight disparity in last year's general election was "in a state of unconstitutionality" but stopped short of nullifying the outcome as sought by plaintiffs.
The ruling by the Takamatsu High Court was the first to be handed down in a slew of lawsuits filed at 14 high courts and their branches nationwide over the 2.08-fold disparity in the weight of a vote between the most and least populated single-seat constituencies in October's House of Representatives election.
In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Ryuichi Kamiyama stated that a maximum disparity of more than two-fold creates "a significant inequality in the weight of votes that cannot be overlooked."
He recognized that last year's election was in a "state of unconstitutionality," but concluded it did not violate the Constitution as the Diet could not have reasonably recognized the issue by the date of the election. He also said the disparity did not exceed the limits on the Diet's discretionary power.
In the 2021 election, voter disparity levels were above 2.0 in 29 constituencies.
The gap widened from 1.98-fold in the previous lower house election in 2017, when electoral districts were rezoned. Two groups of lawyers filed the lawsuits across the country on Nov. 1, the day after the election.
So far, the top court has found voter disparity levels above 2.0 constitutionally problematic, but it has never nullified an election result. It decided in December 2018 that the vote weight disparity in the 2017 race was constitutional.
According to government data, the highest disparity in the weight of votes based on the number of eligible voters as of Oct. 31 was 2.08-fold between Tottori Prefecture's No. 1 constituency in western Japan with 230,959 voters and Tokyo's No. 13 district with 480,247 voters.
Following the ruling, the electoral commission said some of its arguments were not accepted, and that it would "continue to strive for the proper management and execution of elections."
