Japan’s top court rules restroom restrictions for trans illegal
In an unanimous decision Tuesday, Japan’s highest court ruled that workplace bathroom restrictions on a transgender female government worker was illegal reversing a lower court’s decision.
The landmark Supreme Court ruling was in the case of a trans female worker at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
In court documents, the plaintiff in her fifties who works at the economy ministry sued the government filed a suit in 2015 after she was banned by her government office from using female bathrooms on the floor in the ministry where her office was located and instead was directed to use bathrooms two floors above or below her office floor.
According to court filings by her attorney Toshimasa Yamashita, the ministry had adopted the policy “in the belief that there was a smaller chance her female colleagues would feel uncomfortable if she used a bathroom that her immediate co-workers would not be using.” Japan’s Public Broadcasting outlet NHK reported that the Supreme Court’s presiding judge Yukihiko Imasaki said that the National Personnel Authority’s decision to uphold the ministry’s policy of restricting the plaintiff’s bathroom usage gave “excessive consideration” to her co-workers and as a result “unfairly neglected the plaintiff’s disadvantage.” “(The government decision) significantly lacks validity,” Imasaki said. “Therefore, it is illegal, since it is beyond their discretion and is an abuse of their power.” The ruling is significant as it’s the first time Japan’s high court has ruled on a case regarding LGBTQ employees in the workplace which according to the plaintiff’s attorney will have wide-ranging impact across Japanese society affecting how companies and government ministries handle similar cases
