Overview

• On Oct. 3, the Tokyo High Court vacated a March 2024 Yokohama District Court ruling that had awarded ¥275,000 and dismissed the couple’s claims.
• Presiding Judge Maki Aizawa found the husband consented to the officers’ entry by inviting them inside during the 2019 visit.
• The court interpreted the Act on the Elimination of Disability Discrimination as requiring accommodations only when the person makes a clear expression of needs.
• The lower court had ruled police unlawfully moved into the living space and failed to disclose a female officer’s presence to the blind, underwear-clad husband.
• The plaintiffs, who sought ¥2.2 million, and their attorney Tsutomu Shimizu criticized the ruling as setting an unduly strict standard for people who struggle to articulate requests.