A report of the forced sterilization of thousands of people in Japan under a now-defunct eugenics law drew heavy criticism on Wednesday. Critics said he was neglecting the Japanese government’s responsibilities.
The 1,400-page report, which was submitted to the Japanese parliament this week, details how between 1948 and 1996 some 16,500 people – some as young as nine – were sterilized without their consent under the country’s law.
About 8,500 others were sterilized with their consent, but advocates for the victims have expressed doubts about the circumstances under which that consent was obtained.
The law authorized physicians to sterilize people with an inherited intellectual disability to “(…) avoid poor-quality offspring.”
In 2019, Japan’s parliament passed a law requiring compensation to be paid to the victims, but the government had offered a lump-sum compensation of 3.2 million yen per person ($25,000), which was inadequate given the seriousness of the matter is according to the advocates of the sacrifices.
Parliament also commissioned the report released this week, which Koji Niisato, a lawyer representing victims, said was inadequate.
It only confirms “that it was a particularly terrible law,” Mr Niisato told reporters on Wednesday.
However, the report lacks a “summary of why this terrible law was enacted and lasted for 48 years, and it makes no mention of why the government failed to take responsibility even after changing the law,” he explained.
“It’s extremely unfortunate,” he added.
Victims of forced sterilization have long struggled to get credit for the damage they suffered. Three of them won damages in court last year, a victory that is considered historic.
The Osaka (West) High Court therefore overturned the decision of a lower court and ordered the government to pay a total of 27.5 million yen (about 178,000 euros) to these three victims.
But this month another court dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims for damages, saying the statute of limitations had expired.
It was a “horrible decision that ignores the reasons why the victims could not sue,” Junko Iizuka, one of the plaintiffs, 77, told reporters.
“The government’s responsibility is beyond question, I hope that a solution will be found quickly and more adequate compensation will be offered,” without the need for a court hearing, she said.