Forced Sterilization Plaintiff Kikuo Kojima says he was told “it would be terrible if people like you had children”

From Barrier Free Japan with extract from The Japan News

July 21 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.

Among the victorious plaintiffs is Kikuo Kojima, 83, of Sapporo. He was put up for adoption soon after his birth. He contracted polio, leaving him with a disabled right leg for which he was bullied. At age 19, when he was leading a desolate life, he was forced to undergo sterilization.

Kojima was handcuffed by a police officer in front of his home and put into a psychiatric hospital in Sapporo. It was one-sidedly determined that he was mentally ill, and when he was sterilized, a nurse told him that this had to be done “since it would be terrible if people like you had children.”

Kojima took on jobs such as driving a cab, and he married his wife Reiko, now 81, shortly before he turned 40. He was unable to tell her about the surgery out of fear of damaging their relationship. “I was going to take that to my grave,” he said.

In January 2018, hearing about the lawsuit filed with the Sendai District Court brought back all the anger and sadness he had been suppressing. When he confided in Reiko about what had happened to him, she nodded quietly and suggested him seeking advice from a lawyer.

The Kojimas decided, after filing their lawsuit in May 2018, that they would let their real names and faces be made public during their court proceedings, in hope that their actions would spur other victims to speak out.

It was estimated that half of the roughly 25,000 victims of surgical sterilization under the old law had already passed away as of 2017.

Meanwhile, as of the end of May of this year, only 1,100 people had received the lump-sum payments they were entitled to based on a relief law enacted in 2019.

On Wednesday, Kishida grasped Kojima’s hand and told him that the government “did a bad thing” responding to his remarks that he will never forget that he was forced to undergo the surgery.

“Please create a system where everyone can receive compensation, even if many more victims are found in the future,” Kojima told the prime minister.

According to the Children and Families Agency, there are 13 similar lawsuits pending in courts nationwide.