On Thursday, October 23, 2025, Tokyo District Court conducted the final hearing in Tozen Union’s case to restore the trade union rights of direct hire ALTs. Our case moves to verdict, which will be announced on Thursday January 29, 2026 at 13:30.
In April 2020, local civil service law was amended and direct hire ALTs around the country were classified as “fiscal-year appointees.” Prior to this change, direct hire ALTs had the right to join a union and demand collective bargaining. This so-called “reform” stripped them of those basic labour rights.
Tozen Union demanded that Tokyo Board of Education meet for collective bargaining in July of 2020. The board refused, and the union sued in Tokyo Labour commission. The case was dismissed late last year in light of the legal amendment. Tozen plans to sue in court to overturn this unconstitutional decision. Our goal is to restore trade union rights not only for ALTs and other fiscal-year appointees, but all civil servants.
During Thursday’s hearing, one of the ALTs affected by this outrageous law, Mary Dougherty, made a statement to the panel of judges. Mary worked as an Tokyo Board of Education ALT for 20 years before she was dismissed without reason. While our case does not center on her dismissal, her story is crucial to understand what is at stake in our campaign. Without trade union rights, there is nothing workers can do to improve working conditions let alone fighting unfair terminations.
You can read the English and Japanese text of Mary’s statement here.
You can read all the court documents and donate to our campaign here.
For more information, contact case officer Gerome Rothman by e-mailing tozen.rothman@gmail.com.