The Tokyo District Court on Thursday dismissed a request by the U.S. state of Georgia seeking a trial exemption in connection with a lawsuit filed by a former employee of the Georgia port authority's Tokyo office.
The suit in question was lodged by Sumie Kohara after her employer, the Japan office of the Georgia Ports Authority, dismissed her in 2000 because she refused to cooperate with its request that she become a contract worker due to cost concerns.
In the suit, Kohara, a 51-year-old Japanese national, is asking Georgia to nullify the dismissal and pay back wages, claiming it was illegal for the state to fire her for refusing to change her employment status.
Georgia has claimed it should be immune from trial in Japan because the case involves an action by a U.S. state.
In handing down the interlocutory ruling, presiding Judge Shigeru Nakanishi said the rule of exempting state acts from trial in Japan could not be applied to commercial activities.
"The plaintiff's job was related to commerce, and the port authority's objective in hiring her was to expand commercial activities in Japan. The dismissal was not an act of the state (that could be exempted from trial)," the judge said.
A lawyer representing the plaintiff said it is the first time that a Japanese court has dismissed claims for trial exemption in an employment-related lawsuit filed against a foreign government.
The district court is expected to hand down a final ruling after examining the port authority's decision to dismiss the plaintiff.