Institute for Migrant Rights
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Migration Jurisprudence from the South › Japan

McLean v. Minister of Justice

Supreme Court of Japan · Japan · 1978-10-04 · National court

Citation: Showa 50 (Gyo-Tsu) No. 120
Type of case: Administrative
Outcome: Decided against the migrant side

Question

May the Minister refuse to renew a foreign worker’s stay because of his lawful political activity?

What the court decided

Yes. Constitutional rights extend to foreigners, but within the framework of the residence system; the Minister has broad discretion over renewals.

In plain language

A US English teacher in Japan joined peaceful protests. Japan refused to renew his visa. The Supreme Court said foreigners have constitutional rights, but the government has wide freedom to decide on visas.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Seorang guru bahasa Inggris dari AS di Jepang ikut unjuk rasa damai. Jepang menolak memperpanjang visanya. MA menyatakan orang asing punya hak konstitusional, tetapi pemerintah punya keleluasaan luas atas visa.

Pertanyaan: Bolehkah Menteri menolak memperpanjang izin tinggal pekerja asing karena kegiatan politiknya yang sah?

What happened afterwards

  • 1978-10-04: Grand Bench judgment.

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/jp-mclean-1978/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

This collection of decisions is built for empirical legal scholarship and socio-legal research on migration and the rights of migrant workers, as well as for advocacy.

The coded variables support statistical analysis in law: cross-national comparison, regression and event-history designs, and law and economics questions such as how recruitment fees, wage protection and limits on changing employer affect migrant workers. The data can be downloaded for replication.

Keywords: case law; jurisprudence; judicial decisions; comparative constitutional law; courts and migration; judicial behavior; litigation outcomes; refugee law; non-refoulement; citizenship and nationality; empirical legal studies; empirical legal scholarship; quantitative legal research; statistical analysis in law; law and economics; law and economics of migration; comparative law; socio-legal studies; legal pluralism; migration law; labor migration; migrant workers’ rights; human rights law; access to justice; Global South; Asia; Africa; Middle East; Latin America; Indonesia; open data; replication data.