Juki Net judge in apparent suicide

OSAKA (Kyodo) An Osaka High Court judge died Sunday morning in his Hyogo Prefecture home in an apparent suicide four days after handing down a landmark ruling on the controversial resident registry system.

Shogo Takenaka, 64, was the presiding judge when the high court ruled Thursday that listing people on the Juki Net national resident registry network without their consent is unconstitutional.

The court, citing a request from his family, did not comment on how Takenaka died at his home in the city of Takarazuka. But police sources said he was found hanged in the second floor of the house at around 9 a.m. and was later confirmed dead.

The ruling, reversing a February 2004 decision by the Osaka District Court, is expected to affect other lawsuits filed by people opposing the nationwide network connecting local governments' databases of residents. Non-Japanese are covered by a separate registry.

Takenaka ruled that including residents in Juki Net who are opposed to the system and want their data deleted violates the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution. The high court, acting on a suit filed by 16 residents of Osaka Prefecture, ordered three city governments to delete resident registry codes and data on four of the plaintiffs.

A native of Hyogo Prefecture, Takenaka became an assistant judge in 1970 and served on the high court since September 2004.