NAGOYA—A court here ruled that a drastic reduction in public assistance payments in 2013 was valid, dismissing plaintiffs’ arguments that the decision was based on arbitrary calculations and the whims of the welfare ministry.

“The welfare minister’s decision was not illegal,” Presiding Judge Masatake Kakutani of the Nagoya District Court ruled on June 25.

The plaintiffs had sought an annulment of the government’s decision in 2013 to slash about 67 billion yen ($625 million) from the base amount of public assistance payments over the following three-year period.

The ruling, the first among group lawsuits filed at 29 district courts nationwide by a total of about 900 plaintiffs, brought about immediate disappointment and fears.

“If the reduction level continues, I won’t be able to eat,” a 77-year-old female plaintiff said. “It’s the same as telling me to die.”

The lawsuit was filed by 18 recipients of public assistance in Aichi Prefecture against the central government and three city governments, including Nagoya.

The assistance is for food and other living expenses, and the base amount is determined by region, the number of people in a household, and other factors.

The welfare ministry in 2013 calculated the declining rate of prices on its own and reflected the deflation number in the reduced base amount of public assistance.

The plaintiffs said the ministry used an arbitrary calculation method for prices to increase the reduction in the base amount, thereby going against the spirit of the Public Assistance Law.

The plaintiffs also said the ministry never discussed its calculation methods with experts at a committee on welfare benefit standards at the ministry’s Social Security Council.

But the court said the ministry was under no legal obligation to hold such discussions with experts.

In some cases back then, the price declines effectively led to an increase in the base amount, the court said.

The plaintiffs also brought up the fact that the Liberal Democratic Party publicly promised to reduce public assistance money during the Lower House election at the end of 2012.

The base amount should be calculated based on reasonable and basic information and not for political purposes, the plaintiffs argued.

The court said the LDP’s policy was “decided in light of public sentiment and the financial situation back then,” and that the welfare minister “could give consideration to the (policy) when reviewing the base amount.”

Hironori Mori, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, criticized the ruling.

“If the welfare minister is allowed to do whatever he or she wants to do with such magic words, people can’t live,” he said.

The 77-year-old plaintiff who lives in Toyohashi used to work at a cleaning company and other places. But she was not entitled to pension benefits because she had not paid into the system long enough.

Since around 2007, she has been on welfare. After the base amount of public assistance was reduced, she eats only two meals a day to save money, she said.

Public assistance is deemed “the last safety net,” and the central government pays the base amount to guarantee the “minimum for healthy and cultured lives” of residents as defined in the Constitution.

But the district court’s ruling said the welfare minister can take into account “public sentiment, the state’s financial situation” and “LDP policy” to set the base amount.

One plaintiff expressed bewilderment at the ruling at a news conference.

“Is public sentiment visible?” he asked.

In 2012, a year before the reduction was decided, the welfare system came under fire as overly generous after a report surfaced that the mother of a celebrity was receiving public assistance.

But the court did not describe the “public sentiment” that existed back then.

The number of people receiving public assistance started rising in the late 1990s and peaked in 2015.

After a slight decline, Japan had about 2.07 million recipients as of March this year.

But the number is likely to increase again because the novel coronavirus pandemic has hammered the economy and caused job losses and business closures.

According to the ministry, 21,026 applications for public assistance were filed in March, up 7.4 percent from the same month the previous year.

It was the largest increase since the ministry started conducting the monthly surveys in April 2012.

(This article was written by Haruka Ono, Makiko Komatsu, Hiromichi Fujita, Chie Kohara and Toshi Yamazaki.)