Co-leader of Forced Sterilization Plaintiffs, Koji Niisato Views Apology from Kishida as having “reached one of our goals.”

By Barrier Free Japan, extract from The Japan News

July 20 2024

TOKYO – After Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday apologized directly to victims of forced sterilizations conducted under the now-defunct eugenic protection law, some of the plaintiffs and their advocates spoke.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that:

A group of people including Koji Niisato, 72, the coleader of a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys, handed Kishida a letter demanding several measures be taken to address the issue, including the enactment of a law to compensate all victims of the surgery.

Speaking at a press conference held in Tokyo after the meeting, Niisato said, in a trembling voice, “We’ve made it this far at last. It’s taken so long. But now that we’ve gotten an apology from the prime minister, I think we have reached one of our goals.”