“Compulsory sterilization under the old Eugenic Protection Law. The nation must apologize and compensate!” (Kyodo Photograph)

Extract from Kyodo

July 3 2024

TOKYO – Japan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the government to pay damages to plaintiffs who were forced to undergo sterilization surgery in the 1950s to 1970s under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, ruling for the first time that the law was unconstitutional.

In its ruling on five lawsuits in which plaintiffs sought compensation, the court judged the statute of limitations of 20 years for an unlawful act does not apply to cases involving the eugenics law, which was in effect between 1948 and 1996.