The Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court on Tuesday found last year's House of Representatives election constitutional in terms of vote-value disparity, following similar rulings on the event.
Plaintiffs had demanded the annulment of the October election for the lower chamber of parliament in which the maximum gap in the value of votes between constituencies was 2.06 times.
It was the seventh ruling among the 16 lawsuits on the latest general election filed so far by two groups of lawyers at 14 high courts and high court branches. In all seven cases, the election was found constitutional.
The remaining rulings are slated to be released by March 7. A unified judgment on the matter is expected to be given at the Supreme Court as early as this year.
At the Naha branch, presiding Judge Takashi Miura said that the constituency map redrawn for the election was reasonable as it adopted the so-called Adams method, which is believed to reflect population ratios more accurately. Miura judged that the maximum disparity of 2.06 times was not so large as to make the election unreasonable.
"Disparities have shrunk thanks to the constituency redistricting," compared with the 2021 Lower House election, whose maximum gap was 2.08 times, Miura said, concluding that the latest general election therefore was not unconstitutional.
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