Courts to allow online submissions of documents and evidence for civil lawsuits from 2021
The Supreme Court plans to allow online submissions of documents and evidence for civil lawsuits handled by courts across the nation as early as fiscal 2021, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. The top court included roughly ¥150 million for creating a specialized ...
Transgender worker sues Osaka hospital after supervisor told colleagues she transitioned to female
A woman sued the operator of an Osaka hospital where she works on Friday, claiming she suffered undue emotional distress after her boss revealed to colleagues she had transitioned some years earlier due to her gender dysphoria. In a damages lawsuit filed with the Osaka ...
Japan's top court dismisses damages over exclusion of pro-North Korea schools from tuition waiver
The Supreme Court has dismissed a damages claim filed over the government's decision to exclude pro-Pyongyang Korean schools from its tuition-free program for high schools, upholding lower court rulings that found the policy lawful. The top court's Third Petty Bench, presided over by Justice Toshimitsu ...
While some Johnson & Johnson investors were relieved that the company's $572 million penalty for fueling Oklahoma's opioid epidemic wasn't as high as feared, lawyers for other U.S. states, cities and counties could hardly contain their glee. That's because the ruling by Oklahoma Judge Thad ...
Pakistani man files suit seeking special permission to remain in Japan with wife after 30 years here
A Pakistani man who has received notice of deportation after living in Japan for more than 30 years has filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, seeking special permission to remain in the country with his ailing wife. Mohamad Sadaq, 55, said he fled ...
Fired Japan education ministry official gets suspended sentence for drug abuse
A court on Monday sentenced a former education ministry official to two years in prison, suspended for four years, for using and possessing a stimulant drug. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Mitsuhiro Fukuzawa, 44, had violated the stimulant drug control law by using a ...
Dozens of child sex abuse victims sue Catholic Church, others in New York after change in law
Dozens of people in New York state who were victims of sexual abuse as children sued the Roman Catholic Church in New York on Wednesday, the first day a new law temporarily enabled them to file lawsuits over decades-old crimes. More than 70 people have ...
Okinawa files another lawsuit over landfill work for U.S. base
The Okinawa government on Wednesday filed another lawsuit against the central government to halt ongoing landfill work for the relocation of a U.S. air base within the prefecture. In the lawsuit filed with the Naha District Court, Okinawa challenged the legality of land minister Keiichi ...
Courtroom records of landmark postwar civil cases binned across Japan
Almost all judgments in the cases investigated have been preserved, but most of the other documents related to hearings during the trials were not, resulting in a loss of valuable historical records.
Past participants in Japan's lay judge system reveal its challenges
"The accused was sitting right there, so close to me, and yet I felt like there was an unbridgeable distance between us." Tomomitsu Shibuya, a 55-year-old pastor from the city of Aomori who served as a lay judge almost 10 years ago, recalls the day ...
Japan fears compromise on South Korea wartime labor could open Pandora's box of WWII issues
Tokyo worries the ripple effects of South Korea’s top court ordering Japanese firms to pay redress could cascade into other issues, and reignite war compensation issues with other countries.
Women in male-dominated Japan fight for their identity — starting with their names
The nation's women are going through an identity crisis. They're fighting to overturn a law that bars married couples from having different last names, which creates complications for women who have established careers and reputations. About 600,000 Japanese couples wed every year and the law says ...
