FUKUOKA - A high court on Wednesday overturned a central government decision to decertify a Japanese language school over tolerating the chaining and physical restraint of a Vietnamese student by a former staff member in 2021.
The Fukuoka High Court ruled in favor of the operator of Nishinihon International Education Institute in Fukuoka, reversing a decision made by a lower court. The Fukuoka District Court in 2024 upheld a September 2022 decision by the Immigration Services Agency to strip the school of its certification over human rights violations.
In handing down the latest court ruling, Presiding Judge Takeshi Okada said that despite other staff allowing the student to be restrained, the act was carried out by a single staff member and "could not be considered to have been tolerated by the organization as a whole."
The district court in July 2024 had found that the restraint was tolerated at an organizational level, deeming the immigration agency's move to revoke the school's certification to be appropriate.
The school appealed, arguing that there was no organizational involvement. It also sought a suspension of the decertification's enforcement, which the high court granted in August 2024 until a final verdict was reached.
According to the ruling, a male former staff member restrained the student for about two hours in October 2021, using a chain and padlock connected to the person's belt.
Police referred the man's case to prosecutors alleging he abducted and confined the student, but it was decided he would not be indicted in March 2023.
