One of our members has filed a lawsuit against Interac Kanto South Co., Ltd. at the Tokyo District Court. The case seeks payment for pension benefits he can no longer receive after turning 65 because there was a period when he was not enrolled in Employees’ Pension Insurance. We will refer to this amount below as the “lost pension amount.”
The first oral argument will be held on Thursday, June 25, from 1:15 p.m. in Courtroom 804 of the Tokyo District Court, where our member is scheduled to make a statement to the court. A press conference is also scheduled for 2:00 p.m. the same day at the Tokyo District Court Press Club.
Please join us in observing the trial and supporting our member with the strength of union solidarity as he makes his statement.
We will gather in front of the main entrance of the Tokyo District Court at 12:30 p.m.
The plaintiff, union member Fred Ramos, was employed by Interac’s predecessor company in April 2006 and continued working as an Assistant Language Teacher, or ALT, dispatched to the Yokohama City Board of Education until he left Interac in July 2017.
Fred reached the age of 65 on October 10, 2025, and began receiving his pension. However, despite the fact that he should have been enrolled in social insurance throughout his employment, Interac failed to enroll him. As a result, he now receives far less than the pension he should have received. Needless to say, it is impossible to live on this amount.
This lawsuit is intended to challenge the long-neglected problem of workers being unlawfully left out of the pension system, and we hope it will help lead to relief for as many workers as possible.
Going forward, we will be calling on others in the same situation to fight together with us. This includes not only workers who previously worked for Interac, but also many workers labeled as “non-regular employees,” as well as freelancers who have been left without social insurance on the grounds that they are supposedly “not workers.”
Two union members who are still employed by Interac are facing the same issue. Because they have not yet reached pensionable age, we will aim to resolve their cases through collective bargaining.