Only Japanese can be promoted to position of authority, court rules
Publish date: 02 February 2005
Issue Number: 1267
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Labour
In its first ruling on promotion discrimination based on nationality, the Japanese Supreme Court has upheld a Tokyo Metropolitan Government\'s decision to bar a civil servant from taking a managerial promotion exam because she is South Korean.
The Bench voted 13-2 in determining that the metro government did not violate the Constitution by rejecting her request to take the exam, reports The Japan Times. The ruling upheld a government policy requiring Japanese citizenship for civil servants in areas of public authority. Dissenting, Justice Tokuji Izumi and Justice Shigeo Takii said the metropolitan government\'s decision was not rational. Izumi noted that the state had not set any limits on the jobs that foreigners with special permanent resident status could hold, nor had it restricted them from becoming local-government employees. Full report in The Japan Times
