A Japanese court ruled Thursday that the up to 3.03-fold vote disparity in July's upper house election was in "a state of unconstitutionality."
But the Sapporo High Court rejected calls to nullify the poll results in the Hokkaido constituency as sought by the plaintiffs.
The ruling is the fifth to be handed down among 16 lawsuits filed across the country at 14 high courts and their branches by two groups of lawyers who claim the vote weight disparity in the House of Councillors race violated the Constitution's requirement for fair elections.
In the ruling, the high court said it was "in a notable state of inequality that produces issues of unconstitutionality," but it also stated that "improvements to the electoral system must take place incrementally, and it cannot be said that this contravenes the Constitution."
So far, high courts in Osaka and Tokyo have deemed the disparity in a state of unconstitutionality, while the Nagoya High Court and the Matsue Branch of the Hiroshima High Court ruled it constitutional. The last high court ruling is set for mid-November, after which the Supreme Court will give its decision on the issue.
While the Supreme Court has never nullified a House of Councillors election result, nor has it labelled one unconstitutional as such, it did rule the respective 5-fold and 4.77-fold disparities in the 2010 and 2013 contests as in a state of unconstitutionality, and decided the 2016 and 2019 races were constitutional.
In the most recent House of Councillors election held on July 10, Kanagawa Prefecture had the largest number of voters per seat in the election, while Fukui Prefecture had the least, leading to a 3.03-fold vote disparity. The vote weight gap was larger than the 3.00 disparity in the previous upper house election in 2019.
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Court rules Japan's July election vote gap in state of unconstitutionality
