Tokyo High Court
In September 2002, the Tokyo High Court ordered Hattori to pay 9.4 million yen in damages, ruling that there was a strong similarity between his song, , and Asei Kobayashi's song . Asei Kobayashi's music publisher, the Kanai Ongaku Shuppan company, who gave JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) permission to manage the song "Dokomademo Iko" in 1967, claimed that JASRAC had illegally allowed the use of the sound-alike song. In December 2003, the Tokyo District Court ordered JASRAC to pay 1.8 million yen in damages, for allowing the publishing, broadcast and sale in CD form of Hattori's song. This decision was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in 2005.