The Tokyo District Court brokered a settlement Monday in a four-year case brought by a man who claimed he was given unfair job performance evaluations after suffering a stroke. The man demanded that the evaluations be revoked.
The actual details of the settlement were not disclosed, but the plaintiff, 55-year-old Kazuo Kobayashi, had demanded the National Personnel Authority revoke its evaluations of his work since he suffered brain damage from a stroke in 1995 and pay ¥3 million in compensation.
His attorney said the agency had agreed to take Kobayashi's wishes into account and to give due consideration to his physical and mental condition when assigning him work.
"I believe (the outcome) is significant as to some extent it favors people with disabilities," Kobayashi said at a news conference. "This settlement is equivalent to a victory."
According to the lawsuit, Kobayashi suffered a high degree of brain dysfunction following his stroke that impaired his ability to make judgments.
It said he was able to perform his job properly after returning to work in the auditing field where he was engaged before his stroke.
But after he was transferred in 2009 to a section that handles recruiting events, he received low ratings from his superiors who said he kept repeating mistakes at work, which affected his pay.