Tokyo High Court Presiding Judge Yutaka Hirata concluded that the eugenic protection law was unconstitutional. The plaintiff, a Tokyo resident, had demanded the government pay damages of 30 million yen.
This is the first high court ruling in suits seeking state compensation for the forced sterilization. It is also the first ruling that has recognized state responsibility for compensation over the matter. Plaintiffs had lost in all six lawsuits filed with district courts.
The Osaka High Court on Feb. 22 for the first time ordered the central government to compensate plaintiffs forcibly sterilized under a postwar eugenics policy.
Katsunori Fujii, a representative of the Japan Council on Disability held a press conference November 27th 2020 on the then proposed ‘Law on Special Provisions to the Civil Code regarding legal parent-child relationships of children born through Assisted Reproductive Technology’, saying that the law allows for the possibility of a ‘eugenic policy’ and creates a ‘sense of crisis’ for people with disabilities.
The pre-implantation screening will be carried out at about 100 certified institutions in Japan for couples who meet any of three conditions, including two or more miscarriages.
A Japanese court on Tuesday ruled as unconstitutional the now-defunct eugenics protection law that authorized the government to stop people with disabilities from having children, but rejected a claim for damages sought by five people.
Some Japanese disability rights groups have highlighted issues with the bill, as it requires the child to be in ‘good physical and mental health’.
The problem is that the text of the bill requires consideration for children born via assisted reproductive technology to be born in good physical and mental health. It advocates “preventing the birth of bad offspring” and states that there is a problem that leads to the old eugenic protection law that forced people with disabilities to undergo sterilization.
Three people, a married couple in their 70s in Osaka Prefecture who have hearing impairments, and a woman (77) in the Kinki region who has intellectual disabilities, were allegedly forced to undergo sterilization surgery under the former Eugenic Protection Law.
On June 30, the Tokyo District Court rejected the claim of a a man in his 70s demanding compensation for being forced to undergo sterilization under the now defunct Eugenic Protection Law. The Tokyo District Court ruled that “the right to claim damages has already disappeared,”
Barrier Free Japan