Photo/Illutration The building that houses the Tokyo High Court and the Tokyo District Court (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Tokyo High Court ordered the metropolitan government to pay damages to a Muslim woman whose personal information was given by a police officer to a man known to utter discriminatory remarks toward foreigners.

The woman in her 50s of South Asian descent and her 8-year-old daughter were awarded 660,000 yen ($4,400) on Oct. 16.

Presiding Judge Osamu Hagimoto said in the ruling that it was unlawful for the Metropolitan Police Department officer to give the woman’s name, address and phone number to a Japanese man who had threatened to file a civil lawsuit against her following a dispute at a park in the capital in 2021.

Hagimoto reversed a Tokyo District Court ruling that had dismissed the claims of the woman and her daughter.

Their argument with the man at the park started after he accused the daughter of kicking his son. The man then asked the police officer for the woman’s personal information, saying he wanted to file a civil lawsuit.

He later posted this information online.

The Tokyo High Court ruling noted that the officer was aware that the man had repeatedly made discriminatory remarks toward foreigners at the park.

“It should have been easily foreseeable that providing personal information would pose a risk of slander and defamation,” the ruling said.

During the trial, the Tokyo metropolitan government argued that seeking to resolve the matter through a civil lawsuit has a certain degree of rationality, and that providing the woman’s contact information was permissible.

“We will carefully review the ruling and consider our future response,” the MPD said in a statement.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs also argued that the police officer made racially discriminatory remarks toward them.

But the high court rejected the assertion, saying, “It cannot be said that the officer acted based on discriminatory intent or prejudice.”

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