Japan Top Court Rules Work-Bar Provision Unconstitutional

Tokyo, Feb. 18 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a provision in the now-scrapped security services law that disqualified adult guardianship system users from employment violated the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of occupation and equality under law.

However, the top court's Grand Bench, presided over by Chief Justice Yukihiko Imasaki, dismissed a damages claim by the plaintiff, a former security guard with a mild intellectual disability in Gifu Prefecture.

The ruling, backed by 10 of the 15 justices, marked the 14th time since the end of World War II that the Supreme Court has declared a law or ordinance unconstitutional, and the first time since the Grand Bench ruling in July 2024 on the now-defunct eugenic protection law.

The five dissenting justices, including Mamoru Miura, said that the government should pay damages.

Similar provisions barring users of the adult guardianship system from certain professions had been included in more than 180 laws before they were removed en masse in 2019.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]