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,”
The Japanese Medical Science Federation is set to admit the responsibility of medical scientists and academic associations over forced sterilization surgeries that were carried out in Japan based on the now-defunct eugenics protection law (1948-1996), and is poised to apologize to victims, it has been learned.
The former eugenics protection law was enacted unanimously by legislators. For this reason, the victims of forced infertility have requested that the legislative body that created the law be responsible for verifying it. Although the victims are aging, it is expected that it will take about three years because of the wide scope of the survey.
‘Junko Iizuka’, said she “has been feeling down” since the ruling. She divorced for not being able to have a child, and such sorrow triggered mental health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. For Iizuka, who has repeatedly thought of killing herself due to the treatment, it’s baffling why the government is not held accountable.
On December 24th, a hearing impaired couple from Fukuoka Prefecture filed a lawsuit at Fukuoka District Court on the grounds that they were forced to undergo infertility surgery under the old Eugenic Protection Act, an act which violated basic human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. They are seeking damages of 10 million yen.
“The government will give compensation to 22 people who underwent forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics law but do not have direct records of the surgery, in its first such approval, a committee said Monday.”
“Thousands of men and women in Japan who were forcibly sterilised are to receive compensation from the government, decades after they became victims of a eugenics law designed to prevent the birth of so-called inferior children. In April, MPs passed a bill that will compensate 25,000 people who were sterilised from 1948 until the law was abolished in 1996. They include 16,500 people who were operated on against their will.”
“only about 3,000, or slightly more than 10 percent of the people who underwent state-ordered sterilizations, have been identified.”
“Two women who underwent forced sterilization in Japan decades ago appealed Friday a district court ruling that denied a damages suit despite determining the country’s now-defunct eugenics protection law was unconstitutional.”
