Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

402 SESSION VI
Table 6: Organization of Activities of Japanese Civil Society—Businessmen, Bureaucrats & Politicians.
Civil Society Activities Mechanism
Nagoya Citizen
Ombudsman
1995: Established and began activities. (www.ombnagoya.gr.jp)
1995: Filed lawsuit to claim damages for Aichi Prefecture and the Nagoya City
from private firms for bid-rigging case in 1993; court ordered the firms to pay.
March-April 1996: Requested the Aichi Prefecture release information about
business trip and entertainment expenses of auditing panel secretariat. The
Aichi Prefecture rejected on grounds of protecting the privacy of the people
involved. (Court ordered Aichi gov’t to show business trip data, Japan
Economic Newswire.)
April 1996: Filed lawsuit to demand the Aichi Prefecture release information
about business trip and entertainment expenses. The Nagoya District Court,
in March 1997, ordered the Aichi prefectural government to make public
its data about business trips and the entertainment expenses of the auditing
panel secretariat. (Court orders Aichi gov’t to show business trip data, Japan
Economic Newswire.)
1997: Filed lawsuit against the mayor of Nagoya and senior local assemblymen
to return advisory fees paid illegally by the Nagoya City. In Oct 1998, the
Nagoya District Court ordered the mayor and local assemblymen to return 48
million yen for the fees paid without ground of any ordinance. After returning
the fees, the mayor and local assemblymen appealed. In July 1999, the High
Court dismissed the ombudsman’s claim because the mayor and assemblymen
had returned all illegal fees; therefore, the City had incurred no further
damages. The Nagoya Ombudsman claimed 9.2 million yen in legal costs,
but the City refused on the grounds that the high court rejected the claim. In
Mar 2002, the Nagoya District Court ordered the City to cover the legal costs
of the ombudsman in a moral victory over a court case against the municipal
government. (Japan Economic Newswire, 8 July 1999; Mainichi Shimbun, 13
March 2002)
(1997-1998?): Filed lawsuit for Nagoya City and Aichi Prefecture against
Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Hitachi Ltd. claiming 445 million yen on ground
of bid rigging. In Sep 2001, the Nagoya District Court ordered Mitsubishi
Electric to pay 57 million yen and Hitachi to pay 49 million yen. (Jiji Press
Ticker Service, 7 September 2001)
Aug 1999: Filed lawsuit to demand the mayor suspend payments to garbage
incinerator manufacturers accused of bid-rigging. In July 2001, the Nagoya
District Court rejected the lawsuit. (The Japan Times: 7 July 2001)
May 2002: Filed lawsuit to seek disclosure of administrative documents related
to the legal responsibility and compensation obligations of the organizers
and the central and local governments in the event of a cancellation of the
2005 Aichi World Expo. The Nagoya District Court, in Oct 2003, ordered
METI and the Foreign Ministry to disclose documents they sent to the
Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) but to keep documents related to
discussions on what would happen if the event were to be canceled confidential.
(The Japan Times, 16 Oct. 2003)
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Resident suit to claim
damages from contractor on
behalf of Aichi Prefecture
(derivative suit)
Information disclosure
Information disclosure
suit against politicians and
bureaucrats
Resident suit to reclaim illegal
advisory fees from politicians
on behalf of the Nagoya City
(derivative suit)
Resident suit against
contracting corporations with
local government
Resident suit to request for
injunction
Information disclosure suit