The Supreme Court ruled for a second time Wednesday that a nearly 5-1 disparity in the value of votes from different prefectures is constitutional -- despite the fact that the Constitution mandates equality among voters.
The decision makes final a Tokyo High Court ruling from last year in which it dismissed an appeal by a group of voters from Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures who claimed that revised seat allocations for prefectural constituencies of the House of Representatives violate the Constitution.
In the July 1998 House of Councilors election, voters in rural districts had 4.98 times more power at the ballot box than voters in densely populated prefectures.