Note Disparity News Today

The decision followed 16 rulings from lower courts, with one saying the gap was unconstitutional and eight calling it in a state of unconstitutionality.

With Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi having been selected for the new No. 3 district, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's caucus has come out on top over the Abe faction.

Among the 15 justices of the top court's Grand Bench, 14 ruled the 2021 Lower House election was constitutional, while one said it was unconstitutional.

The revised law, which will remove one seat each from 10 prefectures and distribute 10 to five other prefectures, will be put into effect a month after its promulgation.

A total of 16 lawsuits over vote-value gaps in the July election have been filed with 14 high courts and high court branches across the country.

The revision to the Public Offices Election Act would affect 140 single-seat districts in 25 prefectures, with an eye to narrowing vote disparity.

The court rejected the plaintiffs' demand that the result of the election, in which the maximum vote-value gap stood at 3.03 times, be nullified.

Toshiaki Endo, chair of the LDP's General Council, said that it would nonetheless be "hard to define what cults are."

The ruling LDP is facing tricky political questions in the late PM's home prefecture of Yamaguchi, with the answers likely to impact a Lower House district realignment plan.

The changes would be the fourth since single-seat constituencies were introduced in 1994, affecting almost half of the country's 289 districts.