Family of Late Ohkawara Executive to File Suit over Judges’ Decisions

Tokyo, March 26 (Jiji Press)–The bereaved family of a former adviser to Japanese machinery maker Ohkawara Kakohki Co., who died while being wrongfully charged with illegal exports, plans to file a damages lawsuit in early April over judges’ decisions on his detention, the family’s side said Thursday. The family of Shizuo Aishima, who died before the charges against him were dropped, is seeking 170 million yen in damages from the state. In March 2020, Aishima and two other executives of the company were indicted on charges of illegal exports. Aishima was found to have stomach cancer seven months later. He was later released from detention and hospitalized, but died in February 2021 before his charges were dropped. The family’s side claim that it is unconstitutional for judges to allow Aishima to be arrested and detained even though there was no possibility of him fleeing or destroying evidence, and keep him in custody by repeatedly rejecting bail requests even after the cancer was found. They say that the decisions of the 37 judges involved were illegal. Aishima’s wife said in a statement that she feels strong anger toward the court for rejecting the bail requests, and that she hopes the judicial system “will change to a more mature one.” A high court concluded that the investigation by Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department into Ohkawara Kakohki was illegal and ordered the national and metropolitan governments to pay 166 million yen in compensation, a ruling that was finalized in June last year. In August, senior officials from the MPD, the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office apologized directly to the bereaved family and to Aishima at his grave. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]