Japan’s Supreme Court orders government to compensate people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilized

TOKYO – In a historic ruling, Japan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the government to pay adequate compensation to about a dozen victims who were forcibly sterilized under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law, which was designed to eliminate descendants of people with disabilities.

An estimated 25,000 people were sterilized between the 1950s and 1970s without consent to “prevent the birth of low-quality offspring” under the law, described by plaintiffs’ lawyers as “the greatest human rights violation in the post-modern era.” -war” in Japan.

The court said the 1948 eugenics law was unconstitutional and rejected the government’s claim that the 20-year statute of limitations should prevent it from paying restitution.

Wednesday’s ruling involved 11 of 39 plaintiffs who fought in five lower courts across Japan to have their case heard by the country’s top court. The cases involving the other litigants are still pending.

The plaintiffs, many of them in wheelchairs, held up signs saying “thank you” and “victory” outside the courtroom after the ruling. “I couldn’t be happier and I could never have done this alone,” said an 81-year-old plaintiff in Tokyo who uses the pseudonym Saburo Kita.

Kita said he was sterilized in 1957, at age 14, while living in an orphanage. He told his wife his long-buried secret shortly before she died several years ago, adding that he regretted her inability to have children because of him.

Judge Saburo Tokura ruled that the sterilization surgeries were carried out “without rational reasons” and in clear discrimination against the plaintiffs due to their disability, according to court documents released by their lawyers. The court also stated that the procedure seriously violated his dignity, adding that the continued discrimination and gross violation of human rights for 48 years at the hands of the government was a very serious matter.

In 2019, in response to several lower court rulings holding it accountable, the government offered a one-time compensation of 3.2 million yen ($19,800) to each plaintiff. However, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the compensation was insufficient.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed “sincere regret and sincere apologies” to the victims and said he looked forward to meeting the plaintiffs to apologize in person. Kishida said the government will consider a new compensation scheme.

“The eugenics protection law created a society that considers people with disabilities as ‘inferior people’. We call on society to promote even greater efforts to eliminate prejudice and discrimination in response to the decision,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Koji Niizato and Takehiko Nishimura, in a statement.

Around 10,000 leprosy patients were also among those who were sterilized while confined in isolated institutions. In 1996, the leprosy prevention law was abolished, allowing them to be part of society. The government offered them compensation and an apology for its forced isolation policy.

In addition to the forced sterilizations at the time, more than 8,000 other people were sterilized with consent, although probably under pressure, while almost 60,000 women had abortions due to hereditary diseases.

In October, the Supreme Court also ruled that a law requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization to change their gender on official documents was unconstitutional, a historic ruling hailed by human rights advocates as a sign of growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights.