The Tokyo High Court on May 13 upheld a lower court ruling that fined Mr. Shinichi Ujibashi, a former deputy division chief of the health, labor and welfare ministry, ¥100,000 for distributing copies of the Japanese Communist Party newspaper the day before the September 2005 Lower House election. He was charged with violating Article 102 of the National Public Service Law, which prohibits national public servants from engaging in political activities.
This ruling contrasts sharply with the March 29 ruling by different judges in the same court. In that case the court acquitted Mr. Akio Horikoshi, a former worker of the now-defunct Social Insurance Agency, who was indicted for distributing copies of the JCP newspaper in October and November 2003 before a Lower House election.
In the latest ruling, the high court cited a 1974 Supreme Court ruling, which fined a postal worker in Sarufutsu, Hokkaido, ¥5,000 for putting up a campaign poster, in his private time, for a Japan Socialist Party candidate before the 1967 Lower House election. At that time the Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional to ban public servants from engaging in political activities that could undermine administrative neutrality as long as the prohibition could be deemed reasonable and unavoidable.