The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled the vote disparity in the July 2016 Upper House election to be constitutional, following more than a dozen conflicting rulings from lower courts.
The July 10 House of Councilors election was held with a disparity in the weight of votes of up to 3.08 times between the most and the least populated constituencies, a smaller gap than in previous elections held before the latest electoral district mergers.
The top court's 15-member Grand Bench, led by Chief Justice Itsuro Terada, said the vote disparity "was not in a state of extreme inequality that would generate issues of unconstitutionality."