Category: Eugenics

by Michael Gillan Peckitt February 25, 2023 Number of comments0
Disability Eugenics Forced Sterilization Japan

Japanese court orders government to pay damages over forced sterilization

A Japanese court on Friday ordered the government to pay damages to a hearing-impaired woman who underwent forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, the fourth such ruling.

The Shizuoka District Court found the 1948 law unconstitutional and awarded 16.5 million yen ($123,000) to the plaintiff, a resident of the central Japan prefecture, who filed the lawsuit in 2019 claiming she underwent sterilization surgery in 1970.

It is the fourth case in which damages have been awarded over forced sterilization, following rulings by the Tokyo and Osaka high courts and the Kumamoto District Court.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt December 28, 2022 Number of comments0
Eugenics Forced Sterilization Hokkaido Japan

Asahi Shimbun Editorial: Sterilization case underlines grim services for people with disabilities

Eight couples underwent sterilization procedures in response to the operator’s suggestion.
The operator of the group home, a social welfare corporation, insists it never compelled anyone to become sterilized nor required sterilization operations as a condition for continued use of its services.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt November 9, 2022 Number of comments0
Disability Eugenics Japan LGBT Reiwa Shinsengumi Sagamihara

Member of Japanese Diet with a Disability Compares Views of Parliamentarian who said LGBT people had “no productivity” with Killer of Disabled People

In a questioning session, Tenbata pointed out that “I feel that the basis of the statement that people’s value is evaluated based on their productivity is the same as that of Satoshi Uematsu, a death-row prisoner who caused the ‘Yamayurien Incident’ (in which residents of a facility for the disabled were killed and wounded)”. Sugita said she was “very disappointed that some people have the opinion that I am the same as death row prisoner Uematsu” and added: “I will do my best to realize a society that is close to people with disabilities and enables them to live well. We are still not making enough effort”.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt January 14, 2022 Number of comments0
Eugenics Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast Episode 87: Pre-implantation screening raises spectre of eugenics for disabled people in Japan

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.