Court orders pay in info-disclosure lawsuit over Abenomasks

Asahi Shimbun

2 days ago

Plaintiff Hiroshi Kamiwaki, middle, holds a sign claiming victory in a lawsuit against the government at the Osaka District Court on June 5. (Minami Endo)
OSAKA—The Osaka District Court on June 5 overturned the majority of the government's decisions on refusing to disclose information concerning its 40-billion-yen ($280 million) 'Abenomask' project.
The ruling ordered the government to pay 110,000 yen ($767) in compensation to a constitutional scholar who has been denied information on how the millions of anti-COVID-19 masks were obtained.
The government had argued that it discarded procurement information about the mask-distribution project, which was initiated in April 2020 when Shinzo Abe was prime minister.
However, the court ruled, 'It is hard to believe that there were no documents even taking into account the busy schedule at the time.'
The Abe government delivered cloth masks to every household to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The masks, which became known as Abenomasks, were criticized as too small, defective or dirty, and the project was ridiculed. But then the cost of the project emerged, as well as the waste.
The government procured about 300 million cloth masks. However, about 83 million of them ended up stored as inventory.
Hiroshi Kamiwaki, a constitutional law professor at Kobe Gakuin University, had demanded information disclosure about the project several times since April 2020.
He argued the government 'has an obligation to explain the process to the public because of the huge amount of taxpayer money spent on the contract.'
Specifically, he sought details on how the masks were procured as well as the contracting process with the vendors.
Although the government provided documents on contract figures and quotations, it said that emails and interview records showing negotiations with the contractors were 'nonexistent.'
Kamiwaki filed the lawsuit in February 2021, but the government continued to insist that the emails 'were destroyed each time.'
The plaintiff's side then obtained emails from the contractors that indicated they had meetings with government employees about the masks.
When the government re-examined the case, it 'found' more than 100 e-mails on the computers of two employees.
However, the government refused to disclose these emails, and the two employees testified in court that their communication with the contractors was mostly 'verbal.'
Therefore, the issue in the lawsuit became whether the employees' emails were subject to information disclosure laws and whether the government's claims that there were no records of such meetings were credible.
The plaintiff argued the emails were related to the government's decision-making process, and that the administrative document management rules do not allow for 'destruction each time.'
The plaintiff's side also argued it would be impossible for the government not to keep written records of the contracting process with the vendors.
The government countered that the emails were documents with a 'retention period of less than one year' that could be disposed of without any problem. Thus, the government said, the emails were not subject to information disclosure laws.
The government also argued it is obligated to produce documents only 'when it affects policymaking or project implementation policies.'
The absence of meetings' records is not unnatural, it said, and requested that the compensation request be dismissed.
After the ruling, the health ministry said, 'We would like to take appropriate action after fully examining the content of the court decision and consulting with the relevant ministries and agencies.'