A Kofu city assembly member has appealed to the Tokyo High Court against a lower court ruling ordering the payment of ¥1.1 million over a social media post that disclosed the author Li Kotomi is transgender, NHK reported.
Li, who won the Akutagawa Prize — Japan's best-known literary award for emerging fiction writers — brought the case after the post identified her as transgender without her consent.
The first-instance ruling found the assembly member liable and ordered the compensation. The assembly member disputes that judgment and has taken the case to the high court.
The original ruling was delivered on October 29, according to NHK. Details of the grounds the assembly member gave for the appeal were not immediately available.