Petition for retrial is rejected by the Tokyo High Court: Sunagawa Incident

 

“The Abe Administration has twisted the decision of the Supreme Court on the Sunagawa Incident to use it as a legal basis of the undemocratic 2015 Military Legislation. A retrial is likely to seriously damage the administration, so I feel political intentions behind the High Court’s decision”. (TSUCHIYA Gentaro)

“I have been involved in this struggle for 60 years. This is against war and for peace and the Constitution. The High Court’s heartless decision is totally unacceptable”. (MUTO Gun-ichiro)

The Sunagawa Incident court case was over which is superior – the Japan-US Security Treaty or the Japanese Constitution. This is also related to the current problems over US military bases in Okinawa. In 1959, the Tokyo District Court handed down a not guilty verdict to the defendants, saying that the stationing of the US Military in Japan is unconstitutional, but later, the Tokyo High Court overturned the verdict and decided they were guilty. However, an official document has revealed that the US Government directly pressed the Chief Justice of Japan’s Supreme Court at that time during the court case. Based on the new evidence, the four former defendants including Tsuchiya and Muto filed a petition for retrial, which was rejected at the Tokyo High Court on November 15, following the same decision by the Tokyo District Court. Both decisions never referred to the new evidence. The four are going to make a special appeal to the Supreme Court and continue their struggle. (M) 

cf. Sunagawa Struggle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunagawa_Struggle

83歳の元被告が怒りの会見〜砂川事件再審請求を東京高裁が棄却

「安倍政権は砂川事件最高裁判決を曲解して安保法制の法的根拠にしてきた。再審決定すると政権には大問題になる。だから今回の決定には政治的意図を感じる」（土屋源太郎/右）、「60年間一生をかけて闘ってきた。これは戦争と平和、憲法を守る問題だ。こんな血の通わない文章で切り捨てる裁判所を許せない」（武藤軍一郎/左）。安保条約と憲法のどちらが上かを争った「砂川事件裁判」。今の沖縄基地問題に直結するものだ。1959年の東京地裁の伊達判決は、「米軍駐留を憲法違反として」被告を無罪としたが、同年12月最高裁は逆転判決で有罪を下した。しかしこの過程で、米政府が直接最高裁長官に圧力をかけたことが公文書で明らかになっている。これを新証拠に元被告の土屋、武藤さんら4人が再審請求をしていたが、11月15日、東京地裁に続いて東京高裁でも棄却された。内容は新証拠に触れることなく法律解釈だけの門前払い。請求人らは最高裁に「特別抗告」して闘いを継続する方針だ。（M）

Survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education: “68% of junior high school teachers are on the brink of karoshi”

 

On November 9, 2017, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education released a result of its survey, which says, “68% of junior high school teachers work more than 60 hours a week”. The board proposes the “Plan to promote a workstyle reform at school (provisional)” based on the result, but it totally ignores the fact that the long working hours of teachers are definitely caused by the board itself and Japan’s Education Ministry. It never admits its own fault. It is not teachers but the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education that needs to change the mind. Such long working hours were probably nonexistent before 2000 when teachers in the field decided at their meetings what to do. Their workload has dramatically increased since the board and the ministry changed the meetings to a place of orders and coercion and forced teachers to present relevant documents. The additional workload includes annual 35-hour training on the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, compulsory Saturday classes, forcible “training sessions”, various research reports, self-declaration for performance evaluation, and obligatory presentation of other documents, such as class plans. (NEZU Kimiko)

* Photo: Leaflets being delivered to Tokyo Metropolitan Government staff

都教委調査「中学校教員の68％が過労死ライン！」〜自らの反省はなく

11月9日、都教委は中学校教員の68,2％が過労死ライン（週60時間）を超えるとの結果を発表した。これを踏まえて都教委は「学校における働き方改革推進プラン（仮称）」を提案しているが、教員の長時間労働の一番の原因が都教委・文科省にあることの認識がまったくない。一言の反省の弁もない。教員の意識改革ではなく、都教委の意識改革が必要だ。子どもたちのことを知る教職員がどのような教育をするかを職員会議で論議し決定して仕事をしてきた時代（2000年以前）には過労死ラインの長時間労働は多分ほとんどなかった。都教委（文科省）が職員会議を指示・伝達の場に変え、教育内容を指示・強制し、また書類の提出を強制したことで教員の仕事が凄まじく増えたのだ。年間35時間ものオリンピック・パラリンピック教育、土曜授業の強制や押し付け「研修」、各種の調査報告、業績評価のための自己申告書、授業プラン等々の作成・提出を課すなどである。（根津公子） 

 ＊写真＝都職員へチラシ配布