Comments On 'unconstitutional' Ruling On July Upper House Election
Japan's top government spokesperson Matsuno Hirokazu has commented on a ruling made on Tuesday by the Sendai High Court in northeastern Japan.
Matsuno said the court ruled this year's Upper House election unconstitutional due to huge disparity in the values of votes. But he said the court turned down the plaintiffs' demand to invalidate the election.
Matsuno said he will carefully watch rulings scheduled to be given by other high courts on vote value disparity.
The secretary general of Japan's largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, Okada Katsuya, said lawmakers must take seriously the ruling that clearly calls the election unconstitutional.
Okada said he will wait to see the final ruling by the Supreme Court. He added that political parties are responsible for discussing in the Diet ways to keep the value of votes cast in the least-populated constituency within triple that of votes in the most-densely populated constituency.