Another court finds 2017 Lower House poll constitutional

February 5, 2018

Fukuoka- Fukuoka High Court ruled Monday that the election for Japan's House of Representatives in October last year was constitutional in terms of vote-value disparities.

The court turned down a petition by a group of lawyers seeking to invalidate the outcomes of the Lower House election, in which the maximum vote-value gap stood at 1.98 times.

It was the eighth ruling on 16 similar lawsuits filed with high courts and high court branches across the country over the 2017 election. All of the eight rulings found the poll constitutional.

Verdicts on the remaining eight suits will be delivered by the end of March, and the Supreme Court is expected to issue a unified decision as early as this year.

Masayuki Abe, presiding judge at Fukuoka High Court, hailed parliament's efforts to reduce vote-value gaps, saying 2016 law revisions eliminated a constituency with a disparity of 2.0 times or over.

For the 2014 Lower House election with a maximum disparity of over 2.0 times, four high courts found the poll constitutional, 12 concluded that the election was held in a state of unconstitutionality and one ruled the election unconstitutional. Jiji Press