Prince Hotel ordered to pay Y290 mil for refusing teacher union reservations

Wednesday 29th July, 06:40 AM JST

TOKYO —

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday ordered Prince Hotels Inc to pay about 290 million yen in compensation to the Japan Teachers Union and its members, as sought by the plaintiffs, for canceling reservations the union made for its annual meeting in 2007. ‘‘The unilateral cancellation by the hotel operator is not based on any legal grounds, and it is clear that it committed non-fulfillment of an obligation,’’ Presiding Judge Kiyotaka Kono said. ‘‘It should be legally guaranteed that people can attend meetings in order to exchange views so they can establish and develop their own thoughts and personalities.’‘

The court also ordered the hotel chain operator and its executives to run an apology notice in a national newspaper.

The teachers union, known as Nikkyoso, reserved around 190 rooms and a large conference room at Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo in 2007 for use at its 2008 annual education research meeting.

But Prince Hotels then canceled the contract, citing fears that rightist groups might gather near the hotel to protest over the meeting and cause trouble for hotel users and neighbors, according to the ruling.

The hotel operator also refused to follow an order issued by the Tokyo District and Tokyo High courts to allow the union to use the hotel as a meeting venue.

Judge Kono said the refusal means the operator ‘‘is ignoring the justice system and this is illegal.’‘

Yuzuru Nakamura, chairman of the union’s central executive committee, welcomed the ruling, saying it ‘‘clearly recognized the importance of educational research activities by teachers and freedom of assembly.’’

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15 Comments

Scrote at 09:02 AM JST - 29th July

Good. That will teach Prince Hotels not to give in to fascist intimidation.
seesaw at 09:12 AM JST - 29th July

What an amount of money to pay especially during this bad economy. Prince Hotel could have used that money to train their staff to be more service minded especially at the Prince Villa Cafe and the Receptionists at the Takanawa Prince Hotel....I really had bad experiences at both places.
elbudamexicano at 09:47 AM JST - 29th July

Let us not forget most members of the Japanese teachers union belong to the Japanese Communist party, as one of my English students, who is Japanese and an English teacher at a public school here in Japan has told me many times. Those idiot Right wings fools trying to attack a meeting of these teachers at such a nice hotel would be horrible for the reputation of this hotel chain. Some how I feel their bust be more to this story.
GW at 10:09 AM JST - 29th July

elbudamexicano

in case you dont know the commie party is a legal party in Jpn so that is utterly irrelevant in this case.

Now what Jpn needs to do is simply introduce some noize bylaws & then enforce then then the right wing dude wudnt be able to use their sound trucks & as a further benefit we shud loose those damned trucks & cars that blare the names of twits running for office, man I hate those!
Kwaabish at 10:40 AM JST - 29th July

If anything, I hope Prince learned its lesson not to agree to hold a meeting of the Nikkyo-so in the first place so that it doesn't get into this kind of mess anymore...
timorborder at 11:05 AM JST - 29th July

Good decision here. Defying legal decisions must not be allowed. Interesting to note that the hotel seems to fear a right-wing backlash more than it fears the authority of the legal system.
fds at 11:05 AM JST - 29th July

a business owner should have the right to control its own business and not be dictated to by the government.
noborito at 11:35 AM JST - 29th July

What a joke. A business should have the right to server whom they want. Freedom of association? What a backward country.
Freddy5 at 12:04 PM JST - 29th July

I believe the issue was the hotel canceling reservations rather than in not accepting reservations in the first place - "But Prince Hotels then canceled the contract".
dontpanic at 12:06 PM JST - 29th July

fds - a business owner should and does, but not to cancel a contract already made and this was backed up by the courts. If they were genuinely worried about intimidation they should have said no before accepting the booking. Now perhaps Prince Hotels will support calls for restrictions on harrasment of law abiding people going about their business.
Mark_McCracken at 12:16 PM JST - 29th July

If anything, I hope Prince learned its lesson not to agree to hold a meeting of the Nikkyo-so in the first place so that it doesn't get into this kind of mess anymore...

I could be wrong, but I don't think they have that option. Under Article 5 of the Ryokan Management Law, hotels cannot turn away lodgers unless 1) a health issue involving contagious disease, 2) a clear and present endangerment of public morals, or 3) because all rooms are full.(credit to Debito.org for the translation). I'm unsure how the law applies to conference rooms and business meeting rooms.
thedeath at 03:41 PM JST - 29th July

canceling the reservation and ignored the high court order by the reason that they

fears that rightist groups might gather near the hotel to protest over the meeting and cause trouble for hotel users and neighbors

that make me wonder if the hotel really worry of any rightist groups, or it is owned by one for the rightist group member themselves?
herefornow at 04:10 PM JST - 29th July

noborito -- you are really not serious are you? So its OK then with you for onsens to turn away foreigners? Or disabled? Or victims of leprocy? Sorry, but businesses should not have a right to discriminate arbitrarily. Otherwise there are no basic human rights, which, would in fact, make Japan even more backward than it is. (We all know these laws are on the books, but rarely enforced.) Japan needs to be more open, and less afraid of the minorities like the right-wingers who make everyone so damn scared to do what is right. The teachers were not the potential problem, the right-wingers were. To say no to the teachers, because a group that probably gives Prince no income, threatened them is simply chicken sh*t. Clearly demonstrates for all to see that Prince has no real corporate values -- like most J-companies.
TokyoHustla at 04:55 AM JST - 30th July

The teachers union will get defeated in appeal because they are Soviet sympathizers. Their brand of socialism was relegated to North Korea in the 1950s and if they don't like the democratic freedoms enjoyed by Japan now, they should move to North Korea.
Kwaabish at 10:34 AM JST - 30th July

Mark McCraken,

I don't think those limitations come into play for use of meeting/banquet halls.