The Hiroshima High Court ruled Thursday that the outcome of the July Upper House election in Okayama Prefecture should be invalidated due to an unconstitutional disparity in the weight of votes.
The decision by the court's Okayama branch is the first among 14 similar lawsuits filed with high courts across Japan by groups of lawyers who argue that the disparity of as much as 4.77-fold in the nationwide July 21 Upper House election violates the equal-protection clause in the Constitution.
The Supreme Court ruled in October 2012 that the maximum fivefold disparity in the weight of votes in 2010 left that year's Upper House election "in a state of unconstitutionality."