Japanese Forced Sterilization Victim ‘Saburo Kita’ Speaks about “ruined life” at the U.N. [Podcast Episode]

By Barrier Free Japan

June 13 2025

NEW YORK – A child victim of forced sterilization under Japan’s now-defunct eugenics protection law said the surgery ruined his life, as he described his experiences at a U.N. event on disability rights on Tuesday 10th June in New York.

“Because of the surgery, my life was thrown completely off course,” the 82-year-old man, who uses the pseudonym Saburo Kita, said at the event linked to a United Nations conference on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Kita is a member of a group that won compensation from the government in a Supreme Court ruling in July last year. He was forced to undergo sterilization at the age of 14 after he was placed in a child welfare facility for alleged delinquents.

He chose to never reveal the surgery to the woman who later became his wife until just before her death, calling the incident a “painful secret.”

Episode notes:

‘Japanese man tells U.N. forced sterilization at 14 ruined his life’:

Japanese man tells U.N. forced sterilization at 14 ruined his life