A lawsuit seeking 104 yen from the Tokyo metropolitan government has been filed Monday with the Tokyo District Court by a Tokyo-based restaurant chain.
The compensation being sought by Global-Dining Inc. is for partial damages, claiming that the defendant's order to shorten business hours violates freedoms set in the Constitution.
This is believed to be the first lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the order issued under a state of emergency amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Global-Dining, which is listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, had refused to comply with the Tokyo government's request to close restaurants by 8 p.m., issued Jan. 8 based on the revised law on special measures against new strains of influenza. On March 18, however, it shortened business hours at 26 restaurants in response to the Tokyo government's order.
In the complaint, the firm claims that the order was excessive and unnecessary because, as of March 18, Tokyo had gotten past the critical situation of a strained medical system. The complaint states that each of the 26 stores that closed early suffered at least 1 yen in damages each day during the four days it had to follow the order from March 18-21, when the state of emergency ended.
"We are taking thorough anti-infection measures at our stores and there is no way that we are troubling society even if we don't shorten our business hours," President Kozo Hasegawa said at a press conference after the lawsuit was filed. "I'm making an appeal for people to understand that there are people who are suffering the direst distress from the coronavirus control policy."
In response to the lawsuit, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told reporters on Monday evening, "We are following the procedures carefully in accordance with the special measures law."
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