Overview
- The court dismissed a request to void the Hokkaido result despite finding a constitutional problem.
- Judges pointed to a maximum 3.13-to-1 vote-value gap between Kanagawa and Fukui in the July election.
- Presiding Judge Kiyofumi Saito called the disparity a serious imbalance that cannot be tolerated if it becomes routine.
- This is the 11th ruling among 16 coordinated lawsuits, bringing the tally to seven findings of an unconstitutional state and four upholding constitutionality.
- The ruling emphasized that correcting the disparity is substantially difficult and remains within the Diet’s policy discretion.