Moves to check each other are becoming fierce between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration and the Supreme Court. While the top court is eager to defend its position as the nation's highest organ in matters related to the Constitution, the administration is trying to prevent the judiciary from opposing its controversial change in the interpretation of Article 9 so that Japan can exercise the right to collective self-defense. The Liberal Democratic Party is also a party to the battle.
The Supreme Court came to hand down harsh rulings on the disparity in the value of votes in national elections after the idea of creating a constitutional court that would directly rule on the constitutionality of bills or laws even without the filing of related lawsuits surfaced in the 2000s in the course of discussions in the Diet on the Constitution.
The latest example is the Supreme Court's ruling last Nov. 25 that the single-seat constituency portion of the 2014 Lower House election was in a "state of unconstitutionality" since there was up to a 2.13-fold disparity between constituencies in the number of voters per elected official.