Report to Mention Forced Sterilization of 9-Yr-Olds under Former Law in Japan

From Jiji

June 17 2023

TOKYO – A report to be submitted to the speakers of both chambers of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, as early as Monday will reveal that 9-year-old children were among the disabled people forced to undergo sterilization under the now-defunct eugenic protection law, a draft of the report showed Saturday. 

According to the draft, the 1,400-page report will note that sterilization under the law peaked in 1955, and that a total of about 25,000 people are believed to have had sterilization surgery, with 66 pct of them sterilized without their consent.

The report will say that 6,550 sterilization cases have been confirmed from local government documents, and that the youngest of the victims were a boy and a girl, both 9 years old at the time, and the oldest was a 57-year-old man. The boy was sterilized between 1960 and 1964, and the girl between 1970 and 1974.

Of the 6,550 cases, about 75 pct involved women. Among the country’s 47 prefectures, the number of cases was highest in Hokkaido, with 3,224, followed by 1,744 in Miyagi and 1,249 in Osaka, and lowest in Tottori, with 63.

The report will point out that behind the sterilization cases were difficulties in raising children due to economic conditions, family wishes, and conditions for admission to welfare facilities.