The central government and Kanagawa Prefecture said July 10 they will not appeal a June 26 high court ruling ordering them to pay about 4 million yen in damages for the 1986 wiretapping of the home phone of then Japanese Communist Party official Yasuo Ogata.
Ogata, who is now an Upper House member of the JCP, was head of the party's international department when three Kanagawa detectives wiretapped his Machida, Tokyo, home in 1986. He and his relatives, who had sued for the damages, accepted the ruling in their favor and said they would not appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The National Police Agency said it would not appeal the high court ruling because of legal restrictions on criteria for appeals. Kanagawa Prefectural Police, whose three detectives wiretapped Ogata's phone, said it would not appeal because it had no reason to do so.