Overview
- Tokyo High Court ruled the House of Councillors election’s maximum 3.13-to-1 vote-value disparity constitutional.
- Fukuoka High Court’s Naha branch found the same election in a “state of unconstitutionality,” echoing other recent high-court findings.
- Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office declined to indict Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito over alleged violations of the Public Offices Election Law.
- Sapporo announced it culled a brown bear trapped at Maruyama Zoo after repeated intrusions, following camera installation, electric fencing, and a full closure of adjacent Maruyama Park.
- Joint investigators from Hokkaido and Hyogo police arrested Osaka resident Amami Mizukami, 29, on suspicion of involvement in a Dubai-based special fraud targeting elderly victims.