Indian wins damages for skin query

**Maciamo** · Jan 16, 2003, 22:22

Indian in Japan wins damages for skin query

A Japanese court has ordered a real estate agency and one of its employees to pay damages for asking an Indian man if his skin colour was "normal" when he phoned the firm to find an apartment.

"Asking a foreigner his or her skin colour is a clear violation of individual rights," judge Sota Tanaka told Saitama District Court, north of Tokyo, awarding Srirama Chandra B Murthy damages totalling 500,000 yen.

Hehe, happy to see foreigners have at least some racial rights in Japan.

Murthy, who works for a software company, had demanded the company, the employee and Saitama prefecture pay a total of 1.2 million yen for the distress he suffered.

The judge rejected the argument that the prefecture should also be held liable as it is obliged to supervise the agency.

But of course the government stays untouchable. Is there a real separation of the legislative and executive in Japan ? It seems that the former keeps protecting the latter all the time (see the Otaru bath discimination case, where the bath owner was charged but not the the city of Otaru )

**thomas** · Jan 17, 2003, 19:41

These are of course political decisions, otherwise official bodies and authorities would face a flood of similar cases (like in the Otaru case). Since there are international treaties Japan has to oblige to the question is if supervisory authorities like prefectural or municipal administrations carry any responsibilities. So far Japanese judges interpreted these supervisory duties to be quite limited.