Japan Govt to Face 3 New Suits over Forced Sterilization

From Jiji

September 26 2022

JAPAN – The Japanese government is slated to face three new damages lawsuits over forced sterilization under the now-defunct eugenic protection law.

On Monday, a woman with cerebral palsy filed a lawsuit with Tokyo District Court, and three people with intellectual and other disabilities raised a suit at Sendai District Court in Miyagi Prefecture. A couple with hearing disabilities is set to submit a damages claim to Nagoya District Court later in the day.

According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, the Tokyo woman, Sumiko Nishi, 75, was forced to undergo a sterilization operation without her consent when she was 14. The Miyagi plaintiffs, in their 60s to 70s, underwent forced sterilization at the age of 14 or in their 20s, and the wife in her 70s of the Nagoya couple had such an operation when she was in her 20s.

The plaintiffs in the three cases demand that the government pay a total of 158.7 million yen in damages.

“I would not have had the operation had I known what it meant,” Nishi told a press conference on Monday. “I want the government to take proper responsibility for making such a cruel law for people with disabilities.”