The Sapporo District Court on Monday ordered a bathhouse in Otaru, Hokkaido, to pay 3 million yen in damages to three men for refusing them entry because they are not Japanese, but did not uphold the trio's claim against the city for its failure to uphold an international pact against discrimination.
A lawsuit seeking 6 million yen in damages from the private bathhouse and the municipal government was filed Feb. 1, 2001, by David Aldwinckle, 37, a U.S.-born local resident who became a naturalized Japanese under the name of Debito Arudo; Olaf Karthaus, 39, from Germany; and Ken Sutherland, 38, of the United States.
Presiding Judge Mitsuru Sakai said in the ruling, "The action barring foreigners of the defendant's company is a form of racial discrimination, and refusing to allow people to bathe is beyond the limit of permissible conduct in society."
The court rejected the damages claim against the Otaru government, which the plaintiffs argued has a duty to meet the requirements of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which Japan signed in 1995.