Yokohama Court Rules Disability-Based Dismissal After ‘Outing’ Illegal

Extract from ben54.jp via Yahoo! Japan

January 30 2026

YOKOHAMA – On January 29, the Yokohama District Court handed down a ruling in a lawsuit brought by a man who had worked at a disability care business in Yokohama, claiming that he had been unfairly dismissed because of his developmental disability. The plaintiff sought damages including consolation money totaling ¥3 million, as well as unpaid wages.

While the court ordered the payment of ¥800,000 in consolation money, it did not recognize the claim for wages for the period during which the man was unable to work after his dismissal. The plaintiff’s attorney, Motoya Tsuchida, said, “The ruling does, in a sense, squarely acknowledge disability discrimination,” while indicating that they plan to appeal.

The defendant in this case is a limited company that operates a business providing in-home care services for people with severe physical disabilities.

The plaintiff is a man with autism spectrum disorder, one type of developmental disability, and holds a Mental Disability Health and Welfare Handbook.

The man was employed by the business from 2018 and worked as a dispatched helper providing intensive home-visit care. At the time of his employment, he completed a questionnaire that included a question about “illnesses or disabilities,” but he did not indicate that he had a developmental disability. Nevertheless, he had been able to continue working without problems.

In August 2021, feeling that his working hours had been reduced, the man met with the company’s representative to request an extension of his hours. During that meeting, he disclosed for the first time that he had a developmental disability. Eight days later, he was dismissed on the grounds that his failure to disclose this information on the earlier questionnaire constituted a “false report or declaration” and a violation of the company’s work rules.

Afterward, the business engaged in collective bargaining with a labor union and withdrew the dismissal. However, the man was then ordered to work as a helper under the same representative (who is a person with a severe disability) who had been responsible for his dismissal. The plaintiff argued that this constituted a “work order lacking due consideration for safety.”

Claiming that “no substantive arrangements for reinstatement were made, and the union member has been prevented from returning to work,” the plaintiff filed suit in November 2022 seeking damages for discriminatory dismissal and related claims.

The plaintiff argued that being dismissed immediately after disclosing his developmental disability amounted to unfair and discriminatory treatment based on his status as a person with a disability, and sought approximately ¥2 million in consolation money for the violation of his personal rights.

He also sought ¥500,000 in consolation money for each of two incidents in which the defendant’s representative disclosed the man’s developmental disability to multiple employees without his consent (“outing”), claiming violations of his privacy and personal rights.

In addition, the man claimed unpaid wages of approximately ¥130,000 per month, asserting that he had been unable to work since February 2022 due to obstruction by the defendant, such as failing to provide work schedules.

During the trial, the defendant argued that the direct reason for the dismissal was the man’s failure to disclose his developmental disability on the employment questionnaire.

However, the court pointed out that there had been other cases at the business in which employees had made false declarations regarding skills or similar matters at the time of employment, but none had ever been dismissed for that reason.

The court also noted that no specific problems had been raised during the three years the man worked there, yet the representative decided to dismiss him the day after he disclosed his developmental disability. Based on this sequence of events, the court concluded that the only conceivable reason for the dismissal was the fact that the man had a developmental disability. It therefore found the dismissal illegal and awarded ¥500,000 in consolation money.

Regarding the outing, the court recognized one of the two incidents and awarded ¥300,000 in consolation money.

On the other hand, the court did not recognize the claim for unpaid wages, citing factors such as repeated discussions between the labor union and the defendant premised on termination of the employment contract, periods when the man did not submit preferred shift schedules, and instances in which the man declined shifts proposed by the defendant.

Attorney Tsuchida commented, “This is a ruling that offers a certain kind of guidance regarding the sensitive issue of developmental disabilities.”

At the same time, regarding the rejection of the wage claim, he expressed dissatisfaction, stating: “How to return workers to a safe and secure environment is also an important issue in labor relations. Especially in this case, the dismissal was based on disability discrimination, which is absolutely unacceptable.”

The plaintiff also commented on being ordered to work under the same representative who had dismissed him, saying, “They gave no consideration at all to the possibility that I could be injured while working as a caregiver.”

“I can’t continue working in a place like that, and I think it’s wrong that the court failed to take that into account,” the plaintiff said.