A woman running a sex worker-dispatching business sued the state Wednesday, saying its blanket exclusion of the sex industry from a cash handout program to support small companies hit by the coronavirus is discrimination banned under the Constitution.

In the lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court, the woman, who operates the business in the Kansai area, demanded the payment of the benefits as well as consolation money for having been discriminated against "without reasonable grounds," her lawyers said.

The defendants also include Recruit Co. and Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC, according to the lawyers. The two firms are in charge of clerical work for the relief program.