A Japanese high court ruled on Monday the family of a hearing-impaired girl killed in a traffic accident is entitled to the same amount of compensation as would be paid to an unimpaired person, marking a shift from a lower court ruling that reduced the amount based on her disability.
The Osaka High Court ordered the driver at fault in the accident to pay 43.7 million yen in damages saying 11-year-old Ayuka Ide "could have worked at the same workplace and the same level as a non-impaired individual."
Ide's lawyers said they believed this to be Japan's first ruling granting an underaged disabled person the same compensation, based on potential future earnings, as an able-bodied worker.
Presiding Judge Yumiko Tokuoka said in handing down the ruling that reducing future lost earnings is limited to cases in which there is a "major barrier."
The latest ruling recognized Ide had age-appropriate language skills and academic ability and said she could have worked under the same conditions as an unimpaired person in a working environment given the recent advances made in digital technology and social changes.
The Osaka District Court ruling in February 2023 cut her potential earnings by 15 percent, noting her disability could have affected her ability to work.
Ayuka's 52-year-old father Tsutomu Ide said the high court's ruling was "only natural," adding he had sought a remedy on the grounds she was discriminated.
The girl was killed and four other people were injured when a digger hit them after its driver lost consciousness due to an epileptic seizure in Osaka in February 2018.
The driver was sentenced to seven years in prison for dangerous driving, resulting in death and injuries and Ide's family separately filed the damages lawsuit in January 2020.
© KYODO
8 Comments
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wallace
No second-class citizens.
Aly Rustom
agree wallace
ebisen
Who was the cretin judge deciding otherwise in the lower Court? He should be impeached and never allowed on the bench. He doesn't know Japan's constitution stating that all citizens have the same rights.
owzer
Good decision.
but the price should not be determined by how much someone could have earned in the first place.
Coulda been
The lower court judge needs to take a good hard look at himself.
JeffLee
What a bizarre concept, that the value of a person depends directly on how much money they would earn working if alive. That means, for example, that a dedicated housewife’s life would be worse less than a successful illicit drug dealer. Who get’s the person’s earnings equivalent, and why would they deserve it?
browny1
That this is a "thing" is truly unbelievable.
When countless numbers of people have been working tirelessly for decades to tear away the discrimination faced by those with "disabilities".
That a lower court judge could bring such a ruling only 2 years ago reinforces the fact that the judicial system still has a way to go concerning human rights.
Abe234
I guess in Japan under the constitution ALL CITIZENS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME CITIZENS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS. Unless you’re non “citizen” then the constitution doesn’t apply. So glad the dad took them to court to show how discriminatory some companies/laws and courts can be at times.( I only say companies in this case cause I’m sure the insurance company was very happy at the first ruling. I thought all life was equal. No parent should have to go through what he has. Glad he won!
masterblaster
Japanese law is quite capricious.
How can you make a ruling based on future earnings when it's impossible to predict the future occupation?
Why not punish people who murder children/ teens/ young adults with loss of future life sentences?