Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima said Friday that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will appeal a high-court ruling that said the city violated the constitutional rights of a foreign public nurse by refusing to let her test for promotion.
"To have the judiciary make clear its way of thinking on this issue, I think we will ask for a decision by the Supreme Court," the governor told a news conference at City Hall in Shinjuku Ward.
Wednesday's ruling, while admitting that foreign nationals should not take government posts involving public decision-making or the use of public authority, said local governments must not totally exclude foreign nationals from any management positions. The ruling argued that administrators can sort out positions of such power from those without, and that the city, which has not allowed foreign nationals to test for any management positions, violated the constitutional rights of jobs and equality under the law.
Aoshima claimed that in reality, it is extremely difficult to classify management positions as called for by the high-court ruling. The cities of Kobe, Kawasaki and Osaka as well as the Kochi Prefectural Government have all abolished the nationality requirement for government jobs, except for positions judged to involve the use of public power. The city of Tokyo, however, argues that any management position involves the use of public power.
At the metropolitan government, management employees are shifted between a number of positions in different areas and departments, making it difficult for the government to differentiate jobs as the ruling requires.
Chong Hyang Gyun, a 47-year-old South Korean, sued the Tokyo Metropolitan Government September 16, 1994, for twice refusing to let her take a promotion test. Wednesday's high-court decision reverses the district court's ruling made against her on May 16, 1996.