The long legal battle over the fate of former employees of the now-defunct Japanese National Railways seeking to be hired by the successor carriers created with JNR's 1987 privatization ended in their defeat Monday at the hands of the Supreme Court.
In a split decision by the First Petty Bench, the top court ruled that the Japan Railway group firms bear no liability for the unfair labor practices of their predecessor.
Although presiding Justice Takehisa Fukazawa and Justice Niro Shimada said the JR firms bear this responsibility as employers and said the case should be sent back to the Tokyo High Court, they were overruled by a majority opinion of three other justices.