The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court on Wednesday ruled that the July election for the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, was held in a state of unconstitutionality in terms of vote-value disparities. A group of lawyers, including Hidetoshi Masunaga, sought the invalidation of the election, whose maximum vote-value gap came to 3.13 times. Presiding Judge Kazuaki Ono dismissed the invalidity claim. It was the second ruling on 16 such lawsuits filed with 14 high