A Kyoto municipal bus driver with about 29 years of service lost a one-time retirement allowance of ¥12,114,214 after Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the full withholding on April 17, 2025. It was not a loss of recurring pension payments. The case involved a 1,000-yen fare note that the driver did not record as revenue, along with five on-duty e-cigarette incidents and his initial denial of taking the cash.
What happened to the driver’s retirement money?
The driver worked for Kyoto’s municipal transport authority for about 29 years. Five passengers owed ¥1,150 in total fares. He had them put ¥150 in coins into the fare box, then accepted a ¥1,000 note by hand without processing it as fare revenue. He later repaid the ¥1,000.
A manager discovered the conduct while reviewing bus dash-camera footage. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s case summary says the driver admitted using an e-cigarette in a meeting with a superior, but initially denied taking the fare note before admitting it when challenged. The same case involved five instances of e-cigarette use while he was in the driver’s seat of a stopped bus with no passengers aboard, despite a transport-bureau ban. (Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare case summary)
Was it really €73,000 over a €6 fare?
The official case summary records the withheld retirement allowance as ¥12,114,214 and the fare note as ¥1,000. The €73,000 figure is Le Parisien’s rounded currency conversion, not the denomination of the benefit or a recurring pension payment. The passengers’ combined fare was ¥1,150. These figures describe this individual case, not Japanese pension benefits generally. (Le Parisien, reporting with AFP, April 18, 2025)
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What did Japan’s Supreme Court decide?
On April 17, 2025, the Supreme Court set aside the part of the Osaka High Court judgment that had favored the driver and rejected his appeal. The full withholding therefore remained in place. The dismissal and the decision to withhold the retirement allowance were separate employment decisions: the Osaka High Court had upheld the dismissal while finding full withholding excessive.
The Ministry’s synopsis describes the legal standard as a review of the administrator’s discretion: a decision is unlawful when it is markedly unreasonable in social terms and exceeds the bounds of that discretion or abuses it. The Court treated taking public money during official duties as serious misconduct. Drivers were expected to handle fares properly, and bureau rules prohibited carrying personal money at work; the conduct also damaged trust in bus operations.
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The Court considered the other relevant conduct and the driver’s initial denial. It concluded that the small amount, repayment, long service and absence of prior discipline for general service or handling public money did not make full withholding an abuse of discretion in these circumstances. The ruling does not establish that every small fare theft automatically eliminates a worker’s retirement benefits. (Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare case summary)
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How did the courts differ?
- Disciplinary dismissal: The dismissal remained upheld.
- Retirement allowance: The Osaka High Court had found withholding the entire allowance excessive, weighing the ¥1,000 loss, repayment, 29 years of service and lack of other misconduct of this kind.
- Supreme Court: It overturned that favorable portion of the High Court judgment and left full withholding in place, applying the discretionary standard to the broader circumstances of the case.
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