Compensation for death of Nepali worker in Japan

The Tokyo High Court this week ordered the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to pay over JPY39 million ($250,000) in damages to the family of Nepali migrant worker Arjun Bahadur Singh who died in police custody eight years ago.

The order brings justice to the family of Singh, who was 39 when he died after being handcuffed and restrained following his arrest in Tokyo in March 2017.

With help from Japanese human rights lawyers, Singh’s widow Ambika had filed a lawsuit claiming a JPY62 million compensation for her husband’s death at a police station, allegedly due to mistreatment.

The Tokyo District Court had initially ordered a compensation of only JPY1 million to the family citing reciprocity for Japanese nationals in Nepal, but after the Tokyo Metropolitan Government appealed that decision, the court slapped a much bigger amount.

“Police violated their duty to ensure that Arjun was not restrained too tightly than necessary, and it was this action that restricted his blood circulation, leading to his death,” the court order said.

It justified the higher compensation saying it calculated Singh's salary in Japan before returning to Nepal, and added: “Strict adherence to reciprocal compensation could lead to injustice and violation of international human rights law. 

Arjun Singh first came to Japan in 2011 as a migrant worker to work in a Nepali restaurant in Saitama Prefecture. With his savings, he supported his two daughters and wife in Bajura district in Nepal. But he fell sick and went back to Nepal where he could not pay back his debts. 

He re-migrated to Japan, but could not hold on to his job and police picked him off the Tokyo sidewalk where he was living. In his possession, police found a credit card, which they accused him of stealing, although he had just found it on the street and had not used it. 

Police said Singh was disorderly and violent in detention, and had to be restrained before being interrogated at the Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office. They said his handcuffs were taken off just before he collapsed and was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead. No cause of death was determined. 

Japanese lawyer Tohru Takahashi who works for Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan, told Nepali Times in 2018 that a doctor's testimony showed that being handcuffed and shackled for a long period was the cause of death due to muscle necrosis. 

Takahashi and another activist Azuma Toyohisa took Singh’s body to a Zen temple in Nagoya for an autopsy before cremation. The two activists took care of the expenses and also flew in Ambika Singh from Nepal for his funeral. 

“If it wasn’t for the Japanese people who helped me, I would never have been able to take my husband’s ashes back to Nepal, I hope no one has to go through what I did. I couldn’t tell whether I was living a nightmare or a reality,” Ambika had told Nepali Times in 2018 after returning from Japan.

One of the Japanese lawyers defending Singh, Ryutaro Ogawa, told the Japan Times: “This is about how foreign workers don’t get the support they need when they lose their job … I think there is a lot to learn from this case.”

The number of Nepali migrating to Japan has surged in recent years as the country sees a shortfall of workers due to a calling birthrate. There are said to be nearly 200,000 Nepalis in Japan, mostly working in the service sector, manufacturing and studying.