The Tokyo High Court on March 29 acquitted a former worker of the now-defunct Social Insurance Agency who was indicted on allegations that he distributed copies of a Japanese Communist Party newspaper. He had been charged with violating Article 102 of the National Public Service Law, which prohibits national public servants from engaging in political activities.

The administrative neutrality of public servants must be strictly ensured. But the ruling serves as a warning against excessive constraints on political activities by public servants, which could undermine the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression.

Mr. Akio Horikoshi, who was a pension consultation worker at the Meguro Social Insurance Office in Tokyo and now works for the Japan Pension Service, the SIA's successor body, put copies of JCP newspaper Shimbun Akahata's extra edition in the mail boxes of more than 120 residences in his Chuo Ward neighborhood in October and November 2003 as a Lower House election neared. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested him in March 2004. He was released two days later but was subsequently indicted.