Report on Forced Sterilization in Japan Submitted to Parliament

From Jiji

June 19 2023

TOKYO – A report on forced sterilizations of people with disabilities carried out under the now-defunct eugenic protection law was submitted to the chiefs of both chambers of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Monday.

 The report, compiled by fact-finding teams of both chambers, says that sterilization surgery records for 6,550 people were found at local governments and other organizations. The youngest 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.

According to the report, there were cases in which sterilization operations were carried out under false pretenses, as well as those conducted without the holding of necessary screening panel meetings.

The full text of the report was released on the internet.