Five residents of Toyosato, Shiga Prefecture, sued their mayor Tuesday in a bid to stop him from funding the construction of a new school building and to ensure that the old structure he tried earlier to demolish will continue to be used.
In the suit filed with the Otsu District Court, the five argued that it is illegal for the town not to use the old art deco school that Mayor Wasaburo Ono said in December would not be destroyed, as was planned earlier.
The suit is the latest development in the effort by Toyosato residents to preserve the old school. A widely publicized standoff between locals and demolition workers in December led Ono to scrap the town's original plan. The standoff intensified because residents managed to get a court injunction issued to halt the demolition.
Ono said the school would be preserved but added he would proceed with construction of the new building because he considered the old structure at risk in a major earthquake.