NAGOYA Kyodo, an ethnic Korean lawyer, was awarded damages Wednesday for emotional distress after she faced hundreds of requests for disciplinary action over her support for public subsidies for pro-Pyongyang Korean schools in Japan.
The Nagoya High Court ordered a group of people in Aichi Prefecture and elsewhere to pay around 1 million yen $7,400 in compensation for their repeated requests to the Kanagawa Bar Association discipline her, upholding an earlier ruling by the Nagoya District Court and dismissing appeals from both sides.
Judge Toru Matsumura rejected the group's argument that their requests for disciplinary action were not intended to discriminate against the lawyer, saying that they had used strong language such as 'acts of treachery' in their condemnation. The lawyer was made to feel fearful and ostracized for attributes she could not change. Matsumura said that the actions of the group violated her sense of honor and caused her emotional distress.
Matsumura dismissed the appeal, saying that the amount was reasonable.
The president of the bar association in Kanagawa Prefecture issued a statement in 2017 calling for the provision of public subsidies to Korean schools in Japan.
The lawyer was among those named in a blog criticizing this position, with the association receiving over 900 requests for disciplinary action against her, demanding it correct acts of treachery. The association decided not to take disciplinary action, but a large number of requests for such action were sent to other local bar associations across Japan as a result of the blog.
A number of lawyers have sued those requesting a reprimand, with many courts ruling in favor of compensation.