Reasons for Refusing to Sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement
This post relates to the eviction negotiations that began in March 2023 and developed into a lawsuit in September 2024, as mentioned in my post titled “I was actually standing in court for an eviction lawsuit.”
On April 4, 2023, the negotiation representative proposed signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), citing the reason that they expected to discuss “highly specific and personal matters.”
While I have previously signed NDAs during events such as my resignation from Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd and when I started working on patent translation (English → Japanese) under contract with a translation company, SunFlare Co., Ltd., I refused to sign the NDA in this case.
My main reasons for refusal are as follows:
1. Nothing to Hide
I have nothing to hide regarding my reasons for refusing to vacate the premises.
2. Potential Mental Burden
While the proposal might appear considerate on the surface, there is a risk that I could be informed of confidential information about the plaintiff or need to determine which parts of the discussions fall under confidentiality. This could potentially become a long-term mental burden.
3. Relationship with Other Tenants
I suspect that other tenants in the building were not using their rental spaces as their primary residences.
If this assumption is correct, it is likely that, when I moved into the building in September 2019, the human experimentation organization or its affiliates made some arrangements with the property management company, Daito Trust Partners, and the other tenants.
If I were to learn information related to such human rights violations under an NDA, I could suffer significant disadvantages, even if the negotiation representatives themselves were unaware of the full implications.
Additionally, 10 days before this proposal, NHK's program Close-up Gendai (or Today's Close-up) aired a special feature on land readjustment and evictions.
Although this detail was not mentioned in the article, during the broadcast, one of the victims stated in an interview that they regretted signing an NDA.
He explained that, due to having their own secrets to keep, they signed the agreement, were then informed of the other party’s secrets, and became unable to disclose them.
When it comes to NDAs, not only in eviction negotiations but also in any personal context, it is crucial to consider their implications carefully.
