Lost Wages of Disabled Girl Same as Nondisabled: Japan Court

Osaka, Jan. 21 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese court has ruled that the estimated lost wages of a girl with hearing difficulties who died in a traffic accident are considered the same as those for people without disabilities.

In a landmark ruling Monday, Osaka High Court ordered the driver of a construction machinery vehicle to pay damages totaling some 43 million yen to the family of Ayuka Ide, who died aged 11 after being hit by the vehicle on a road in the western city of Osaka in 2018.

"There is no reason to reduce (Ide's estimated lost wages) from the average pay of all workers," Presiding Judge Yumiko Tokuoka said.

The decision revised the 2023 ruling by Osaka District Court, which had ordered the damages payment of 37 million yen, calculating that Ide's estimated lost wages, or the amount of future pay the victim would have earned, were 85 pct of the average pay of people with no disabilities.

The family of Ide, who was a fifth-grader at a special-needs school for children with hearing loss or difficulties, had demanded 61 million yen in damages.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]