"A list of delinquent personal information has been distributed to lawmakers and has not been recovered. Is this a problem?"

Yugawara Town, Kanagawa Prefecture , a new member, Yukiko Tsuchiya, asked a question at the plenary session of the town council in September 2020. Thick materials containing the names, addresses, delinquent amounts, etc. of about 2,000 people who are delinquent in taxes such as town tax and water charges were distributed at a secret meeting within the Special Commission for Strengthening Measures to Collect Town Taxes, etc. (Yugawara Town population of about 24,000: as of August 3rd year of Reiwa)

Since being elected, Tsuchiya has been boldly cutting into various issues of town administration in this way. On the other hand, the Yugawara Town Council said that Tsuchiya's remarks leaked the proceedings of the secret meeting and imposed a punishment for apologizing, and if Tsuchiya refused to do so, he was punished by suspending attendance for one day.

However, the distribution of this list of delinquents to members of the Diet is a convention that has continued for 10 years in the Yugawara Town Council and is not a secret. The town council said that "not collecting the list" after distributing it to lawmakers was a secret leak . (It should be noted that the list has not been collected in the minutes of the past parliament)

In these days when the importance of protecting personal information is recognized so much, the handling of the delinquent list like this time is unprecedented. The media considers the punishment for lawmakers who insisted on the right thing as a problem. (Kanagawa Shimbun, Tokyo Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun , Yomiuri Shimbun, etc.)

[ Nikkan Gendai "Kanagawa / Yugawara Town Council Unusual Disciplinary Action over List of Delinquents" ]

[ BuzzFeed News "What is the" dark council "as seen by a new member of the Diet," I can only be bullied even if I become a member of the Diet ]

Furthermore, the townspeople stood up so that Tsuchiya should not be punished and ended (formation of the Yugawara townspeople ombudsman (described later)).

Negative campaign using parliamentary newsletter

Not only that, the town council also published a special feature on Tsuchiya's punishment on 4 out of 16 pages in the parliamentary bulletin, and Tsuchiya wrote an apology saying that Tsuchiya was unilaterally blamed without mentioning the problem of the list of delinquents. It was posted with a signature and distributed throughout the town. This apology was the reason for the second punishment because Tsuchiya refused to read it because it was strange.

Plaintiff (Yukiko Tsuchiya)'s allegation-This is a problem for Japan as a whole-

Outline of Tsuchiya's statement of opinion made in this trial that has already begun ( Click here for the full text)

After living in Tokyo for 20 years from university, I want to raise a child in Yugawara, where I was born and raised. Becoming a member of the Diet wanting to improve the town for children.

However, the parliament is a place of sympathetic pressure and bullying where things cannot be discussed and things are decided by a majority vote . The chairman said, "No matter what the newcomer says, you don't vote for me at the time of the chairman's election, right?"

I felt nauseous when I got the list of delinquents. Even if I complained that it was strange, the noisy new woman could not get in touch with me, and I was punished.

The supporters who saw the parliamentary newsletter were worried, and those who did not know the situation said, "Mr. Tsuchiya, you did it." Even if he behaves steadily, he loses weight without eating. Even so, I did my best without accepting it, and I came to think that there was a role to be changed in this kind of constitution .

"On behalf of the citizens, if the council cannot say that bad things are bad and right things are right , it is not functioning as a council. If you point out human rights violations against the townspeople, you will be punished. If allowed, the members of Yugawara Town will not be able to say anything in the future. If the content of the secret meeting is decided whether it is a secret or not, the assembly is free to do whatever it wants. It's a secret, so if you can do anything, it's wrong. "

"At this rate, no courageous member will be born in Yugawara. No matter how motivated you are, no matter how much you try to work for the townspeople, or try to do the right thing, if you don't like it, you will be punished by many forces. I would like to ask the judicial power to make a judgment so that the local council will not run out of control anymore and restore the council to a normal state . "

* Click here for the full text of the plaintiff's statement of opinion

The local council is so terrible that the judiciary can no longer be silent-change of case law for the first time in 60 years-

Currently, as in this case, local councils nationwide target members who point out "inconvenience" and "dislike" for the chief + majority members, such as unprecedented female members and citizens. There are many cases in which not only ridicule and yaji but also punishment and resignation of members are recommended in the parliament to try to shut them down. So to speak, it is bullying .

Abuse of punishment by simply imposing punishment at the will of the convention faction (a group to which many members of the parliament belong) because the punishment is decided by majority vote. In addition, if a negative campaign is launched against that member as a "bad member who has been punished," it is possible to prevent him from being elected in the next election, which is doubly convenient.

The reason why this is rampant is that it could not be resolved by appealing to the court and there was no means to correct it. Of the four punishments of admonition, apology, suspension of attendance, and expulsion , the Supreme Court's case law (maximum judgment October 19, 1960) that judicial intervention is not possible except for expulsion by leaving it to the "autonomy of the parliament" Because of the existence of the day), no matter how unjustified the punishment was, I had no choice but to cry and fall asleep except for the expulsion .

However, the judiciary has finally become unable to keep silent due to the overwhelming "repression of minority members" in the local council these days. In November 2020, the Supreme Court changed the case for the first time in 60 years, saying that it could be subject to judicial review regarding suspension of punishment . (Maximum Reiwa November 25, 2)

<Photo: The left is the Mainichi Shimbun that reports it on November 26, 2011, and the right is the one when Ken Otomo, Iwanuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, who won this Supreme Court case, rushed to support the Tsuchiya trial. Otomo has lost the election as a result of the harassment. ＞

Social significance of this trial-No more allowing minority bullying in local councils-

The change in case law that took place in November last year shed light on the minority lawmakers who had fallen asleep. However, in this case, the suspension of attendance was very long, 23 days, because the suspension of attendance prevented the core activities of the members. In order to silence the minority members and prevent them from being reelected, it is not necessary to suspend attendance for 23 days as in the case of Tsuchiya. By the way, how is Tsuchiya's suspension of attendance for one day judged?

No more unjustified punishment that does not allow minority bullying in the local council . Winning this trial should lead to the normalization of local councils nationwide and change society as a whole.

And this trial is being watched not only by metoo , but also by lawmakers, former lawmakers, and their supporters who have encountered the same situation all over the country. In addition to the former city council of Otomo in Iwanuma City, various members of the Diet and former members of the Diet are rushing to support each trial.

In Japan, the participation of women in the political field is an important issue in order to close the gender gap . From the perspective of SDGs , there is an urgent need for significant improvements. Such unfair punishment is often given to women who jump into the local council to change politics from the local area. Eliminating the crushing of minority members is directly linked to the elimination of gender gaps and the achievement of the SDGs .

<The photo shows several female lawyers who joined the defense team in sympathy with the goals of the SDGs and their social significance>

What was going on in the "secret meeting" -another proceeding-

The delinquent list was dealt with in a meeting called "Secret Meeting". The "secret meeting" also exists within the provisions of the Constitution, and is a meeting that is not open to the public in order to protect personal information. But what was the discussion going on? Did lawmakers need to see this list of delinquents? The Yugawara townsman ombudsman , which was formed in the wake of this problem, filed a lawsuit seeking "publication of the minutes of the secret meeting ."

The defense teams in these two proceedings are the same, and the proceedings themselves can be said to be two sides of the same coin. The Ombudsman asks if there was a grounded discussion in the secret meeting that was absolutely necessary after thorough examination and stages in handling the personal information of the townspeople in order to essentially solve this problem. There is. In addition, Tsuchiya has argued that the parliamentary remark that "the list has not been recovered" is the basis for punishment as a leak of a secret meeting, and the issue of the trial is whether it should be kept secret.

In other words, if the minutes are allowed to be released in this ombudsman proceeding , Tsuchiya's statement that "the list has not been recovered" will not be a secret, and there will be no basis for punishment (in addition, that). Even in that case, personal information should be private).

The defense team is a tactic that uncovers the darkness of the Yugawara Town Council by unifying these two proceedings .

The defense team leader is Takashi Okawa, who is familiar with administrative litigation .

Takashi Okawa is a leading administrative litigation expert known to those in the know. I have consistently sought to stand on the side of the citizens, not on the side of the government. He has been in charge of numerous administrative lawsuits, including the Yokohama City Garbage Incineration Factory Construction Proceedings, and it was Okawa who filed an order to ban the mannequin flash mob in Ebina City and won the cancellation. Okawa, who turns 80 this year, was thinking of retiring and was about to withdraw from the Yokohama office, but the townspeople Ombudsman contacted the "Kanagawa Citizens Ombudsman" represented by Okawa and learned about this problem. be.

At the call of Okawa, lawyers who respected him and agreed with the social significance of this trial gathered.

Plaintiff, Yugawara townsman ombudsman, defense team. Both have the same feelings for this proceeding. This is not a personal proceeding, but a socially changing proceeding that puts an end to the dysfunction of local councils nationwide and restores democracy . Okawa also wants to pass on his know-how as a lawyer to young lawyers, saying that this may be the last administrative litigation.

About the use of funds-Towards a society in which hearty lawyers can continue to file proceedings with social significance-

Such proceedings have social significance, but there are not many plaintiffs who try to change society by paying legal fees. Lawyers who file administrative proceedings on the part of residents often use "bento", while lawyers on the side of government receive considerable compensation from local governments (of course, the source of funds is tax). One of the characteristics of such trials is that various investigations are required and the amount of work is large (see the proceedings). In this case, the lawyers who have a heart will not be rewarded, the number of lawyers who will handle administrative litigation on the part of the residents will not increase, and the residents will not be saved.

The mechanism of crowdfunding these days is a means to solve it. In order for residents to compete with local governments on an equal footing, and for a society in which hearty lawyers can play an active role .

◯ Attorney's fee Same amount as a lawyer on the town side Up to 3.8 million yen

(500,000 yen at the start, 400,000 yen per diem at the time of appearance, success fee 1 million yen)

Since there are two proceedings, a punishment revocation proceeding and an information disclosure proceeding, the upper limit is double this.

◯ Actual costs for proceedings (stamp duty, postal ticket, postal cost, etc.) Approximately 50,000 yen

◯ Costs related to written opinions requested by researchers About 150,000 yen

4 million yen in total

* This crowdfunding support fund will be used only for the costs of the proceedings and will not be donated to Yukiko Tsuchiya.

In addition, as a second goal after collecting this 4 million yen, I would like to use it for the cost of coping with minority bullying of local councils nationwide and creating a platform that can share information.