Students claim notice of discipline from Japan’s Aichi Univ. over protest is retaliation

NAGOYA — Aichi University has notified two students of disciplinary action against them for displaying a university student association banner during a protest against a proposed tuition hike at the University of Tokyo — a move the students claim is retaliation for whistleblowing.

Aichi University expelled three students in September last year for taking part in an antiwar protest over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while hoisting a similar banner. The latest action came to light after the Mainichi Shimbun interviewed students at the private university and others.

According to information on the disciplinary measure, the notice, dated July 12, was sent to two second-year students. As reasons for the disciplinary measures against them, it cited their participation in the anti-tuition hike protest while raising a banner reading “Aichi University student self-governing association” without permission from the university, while also letting former students who had previously been expelled enter the campus.

The two students serve as executive members of the university’s Toyohashi campus student association, comprising students at the campus in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture.

‘Retaliatory act against whistleblowing’

In a news conference held in Nagoya on July 22, one of the students who received the notification denied taking part in any of the protests, saying, “There were classes and I didn’t participate.”

The student claims that this was “a retaliatory act against whistleblowing” by the university, speculating that it’s motivated by the student association’s move in a news conference in June to accuse the university of injustice for expelling the three students, and for unilaterally retrieving flyers that the association had sent to faculty members.

Keisuke Nishizawa, a lawyer who attended the July 22 press conference, stated that the notification was “illegal in itself as it suppresses students’ accusations of injustice by the university.”

Upon an inquiry by the Mainichi Shimbun, the university said, “We will refrain from commenting as it concerns the personal information of students.”

(Japanese original by Shinichiro Kawase, Nagoya News Department)