The Tokyo District Court has ruled that the Higashiyamato Municipal Government's refusal to let a girl with throat disease enter its nursery school was illegal, sources close to the case said Thursday.

Presiding Judge Hiroyuki Kanno said the medical conditions of Suzuka Aoki, 5, "have improved as she has grown. It is possible for an ordinary nursery school to take her."

Suzuka, who must use a tracheal tube to periodically extract mucus from her diseased windpipe, applied to the nursery school last year, but the city rejected her application because mucus extraction is a medical activity it said the school is not able to perform.

Since June 2003, the girl has been attending a facility for disabled children that has nurses on staff, but it only allows short stays.

Since both her parents work, they opted to send their daughter to the nursery school, which keeps children for a longer time and has children close to her age who can interact with her.

The girl is able to remove the mucus by herself.