Japan's top court expected to rule excluding sex industry from COVID grants constitutional
TOKYO -- Japan's Supreme Court is expected to finalize a decision upholding the constitutionality of government regulations excluding a business in the sex industry from eligibility for COVID-19 grants, which the plaintiff argue violates Article 14 of the Constitution guaranteeing equality under the law.
The Supreme Court's First Petty Bench, overseen by Justice Mitsuko Miyagawa, decided May 26 to set June 16 as the date for its ruling on an appeal by a sex business operator. Because the court will not hold the oral arguments necessary to review the high court's decision, the two lower court rulings -- which found the exclusion constitutional and rejected the business operator's claims -- are expected to stand.
The plaintiff is a so-called "delivery health" company in the Kansai region that dispatches sex workers. In September 2020, the company applied to the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency for a 2-million-yen (about $14,000) sustainability grant and about 1 million yen in rent support, citing decreased sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the applications were denied under the exclusion regulations. The company then sued the government for a total of about 4.5 million yen ($31,600), including 1.5 million yen ($10,500) in damages in addition to the two grants.
In the lawsuit, the government argued that sex industry businesses, which provide temporary sexual gratification for a fee from customers, "contradict the sexual moral standards shared by the majority of citizens," and that it was inappropriate to support such businesses with public funds. In June 2022, the Tokyo District Court ruled that the exclusion "is based on reasonable grounds and does not constitute discrimination, and thus does not violate the Constitution," dismissing the business's claim.
The Tokyo High Court's October 2023 appeal verdict acknowledged that while public values regarding sexuality are diversifying, there remains a negative mindset toward publicly recognizing sex-related entertainment businesses. It concluded that the government's decision to exclude such businesses from eligibility for grants because of the difficulty in gaining the understanding of taxpayers was "not unreasonable and did not exceed the discretion of the administrative agency," upholding the district court ruling.
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