Photo/Illutration The Aigi Country Club in Kani, Gifu Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

NAGOYA--Refusing membership to a golf club because a person was not born with Japanese nationality constitutes racial discrimination, the Nagoya High Court ruled.

To do so “violates the Constitution and international treaties,” the court said in its Oct. 27 ruling.

Presiding Judge Nobuhiro Katada ordered the Aigi Country Club in Kani, Gifu Prefecture, to pay 770,000 yen ($5,130), including consolation money, to a third-generation ethnic Korean in his 40s who acquired Japanese citizenship in 2018.

The Tsu District Court’s Yokkaichi branch rejected the plaintiff’s claim in April.

The man, a resident of Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, had demanded 3.3 million yen in compensation for emotional distress after he was denied membership to the golf club in 2022 on grounds of his former South Korean nationality.

The high court said the propriety of the club’s decision should be considered from the perspective of whether Article 14 of the Constitution, which stipulates “equality under the law,” and the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which Japan is a party, are properly reconciled with Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of association.

It noted that the club has about 1,500 members and “golf has become a common leisure activity.” As such, the court said the club is a “social organization,” which inherently placed “certain limits” on its discretionary power to select members.

The court also noted that the plaintiff became a naturalized Japanese citizen after having lived in Japan for many years during which he encountered prejudice and discrimination.

The high court determined that the club’s refusal of admission was an “infringement on personal rights and personal values and (constituted) discrimination without reasonable grounds” in clear violation of Article 14 of the Constitution as well as the International Covenants on Human Rights.

It also ruled that the refusal constituted “racial discrimination” under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The court said the extent to which the club’s freedom of association was curtailed is relatively small compared with the disadvantages suffered by the plaintiff.

The high court concluded that refusing membership is “illegal beyond socially acceptable limits and an abuse of the club’s discretionary power in selecting members” even after taking into consideration the fact that many golf clubs set a cap on the number of foreign nationals among their members or do not allow them to join at all.

A lawyer for the club told The Asahi Shimbun, “We have not received the ruling, so we cannot comment on the case.”

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