Hokkaido Deaf Students Denied Classes in Japanese Sign Language Take Case to Supreme Court

From Hokkaidō News UHB via Yahoo! Japan

September 24 2025

Sapporo City, Hokkaidō – A lawsuit was filed against Hokkaidō by children who attended a school for the deaf, claiming their right to education was violated because they could not receive classes in Japanese Sign Language, and seeking damages.

The plaintiffs announced on September 24 that they had appealed to the Supreme Court, dissatisfied with the Sapporo High Court’s ruling that dismissed their appeal.

Those appealing are a 6th grade boy currently enrolled at Hokkaidō Sapporo School for the Deaf and a 3rd year junior high school girl who previously attended the school.

According to the complaint, the two had been in classes where instruction was provided in Japanese Sign Language, but partway through their schooling, teachers who could not sufficiently use Japanese Sign Language were assigned as their homeroom teachers, making it impossible for them to receive lessons in Japanese Sign Language.

As a result, they could not communicate adequately and suffered mental distress. Arguing that this violated their constitutional right to receive education, they demanded a total of 11 million yen in damages from Hokkaidō.

In the September 11 ruling, Presiding Judge Kiyonori Saitō of the Sapporo High Court supported the lower court’s decision, stating that “the right to receive instruction in Japanese Sign Language is not explicitly guaranteed under the Constitution or laws,” and dismissed the appeal.

Following this decision, the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on the morning of the 24th.

The attorney commented: “To say that there is no human rights protection because one has a disability is a completely backwards judgment.”