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2012 January 25 - 31 [EDUCATION]

Court dismisses ex-high school principal’s claim against unfair rejection of reemployment

The Tokyo District Court on January 30 dropped an ex-high school principal’s claim that the Tokyo Metropolitan government unfairly rejected his reemployment application. The plaintiff will appeal to a higher court.

The plaintiff is Doi Nobuo, former principal of Tokyo’s Mitaka High School.

In 2006, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education issued a directive to ban public high school teachers from voting and raising hands to express their opinions in staff meetings. The former high school principal, during his tenure, urged the education board to withdraw the directive because it resulted in discouraging teachers’ open debate. Doi also objected to the education board’s instruction requesting high school principals to give a low grade to more than 20% of teachers in his/her schools. He criticized the instruction as violating the existing rules and procedures for evaluating teachers’ job performance.

Before his retirement in March 2009, the Tokyo government rejected Doi’s application for a temporary teaching position. Doi filed a damage suit claiming that the Tokyo government’s rejection was unfair.

The court said, “The Tokyo government decided to turn down Doi’s application for reemployment based on his behavior during his tenure as principal. This decision isn’t abuse of the employer’s discretion and is reasonable.” However, the court recognized the education board’s directive as controversial.