NAGOYA–Refusing membership to a golf club because a person was not born with Japanese nationality constitutes racial discrimination, the Nagoya High Court has ruled.
This “violates the Constitution and international treaties,” the court said in its October 27 ruling.
Presiding Judge Nobuhiro Katada ordered the Aigi Country Club in Kani, Gifu Prefecture, to pay 770,000 yen ($5,130), including consolation money, to a third-generation Korean in his 40s who acquired Japanese citizenship in 2018.
The Yokkaichi Branch of the Tsu District Court rejected the plaintiff’s request in April.
The man, a resident of Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, had demanded 3.3 million yen in compensation for emotional distress after being denied golf club membership in 2022 due to his former South Korean nationality.
The High Court said the merits of the club’s decision had to be examined in terms of whether Article 14 of the Constitution, which states “equality before the law”, and the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which Japan is a party, are duly reconciled with Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of association.
He noted that the club has about 1,500 members and “golf has become a mainstream leisure activity.” As such, the court said the club is a “social organization,” which inherently imposed “certain limits” on its discretion to select its members.
The court also noted that the plaintiff had become a naturalized Japanese citizen after living many years in Japan during which he faced prejudice and discrimination.
The High Court determined that the club’s refusal of admission constituted “an attack on personal rights and values and (constituted) discrimination without reasonable grounds”, in flagrant violation of Article 14 of the Constitution as well as the relevant International Covenants. to human rights.
It also ruled that the refusal constituted “racial discrimination” within the meaning of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The court found that the extent to which the club’s freedom of association had been restricted was relatively small in relation to the disadvantages suffered by the plaintiff.
The High Court concluded that refusing membership is “unlawful beyond socially acceptable limits and constitutes an abuse of the club’s discretion in selecting members”, even after taking into consideration the fact that many golf clubs set a cap on the number of foreign nationals among their members or do not allow them to join at all.
A lawyer for the club told The Asahi Shimbun: “We have not received the decision, so we cannot comment on the matter. »
