The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld a district court ruling that called "unfair" the city of Saitama's refusal to publish a haiku which referred to the Constitution and carried a pacifist message in its local newsletter .
The high court ordered the city to pay ¥5,000 in damages to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff's haiku, which translates to "Under rainy-season skies/ 'Protect Article 9'/ Female demonstrators cry out" ("Tsuyuzora ni/ 'Kyujo mamore' no/ Josei demo"), was submitted by a local haiku club in June 2014 to the Mihashi community center in Saitama for publication in the center's monthly newsletter. The center, however, refused to publish the haiku because the message in the poem would be "divisive" and the newsletter must remain politically "fair."