A Japanese court ruled Friday that July's upper house election was in a "state of unconstitutionality" due to a disparity of up to 3.03 times in the value of a vote between the most- and least-populated constituencies.
But the Osaka High Court rejected the demand made by voters in Japan's western Kinki region that election results be nullified. The ruling is the first result of a series of lawsuits filed to 14 high courts and branches around the country.
The Supreme Court is also expected to make a ruling over the July 10 House of Councillors election after all the high court rulings across the country are handed down by the end of November.
Kanagawa Prefecture had the largest number of voters per seat in the election, while Fukui Prefecture had the least.
The vote weight gap was also larger than the 3.00 seen in the previous upper house election in 2019.
Presiding Judge Kenji Maki commented that while the overall voting disparity had been reduced from an average of 5.00 to 3.00 since Japan passed legislation in 2015 that merged two pairs of less-populated prefectures into two constituencies, such gaps should not be taken lightly.
Maki also criticized the Diet's lackluster response to correct vote gaps after disparities saw a slight increase in the July election. "We are in such a state of striking inequality to the extent that these problems of unconstitutionality occur," he said.
