By Regis Arnaud
Posted 54 minutes ago, updated 1 minute ago
March in support of victims of forced sterilizations during an appeals case before the Osaka High Court in February 2022. Naoya Azuma / The Yomiuri Shimbun via Portal Connect
HISTORY – Between 1948 and 1996, Tokyo implemented a forced sterilization program that claimed tens of thousands of lives. For those who sue in court, the Japanese state, which has still not admitted its guilt, is waging a bitter battle.
Tokyo, Japan)
nine years. This is the first age at which tens of thousands of Japanese men and women deemed “defective” were sterilized, largely without their consent, under a government program that ran from 1948 to 1996. After decades of indifference, the state legislature has just received a 1,400-page report that shines a sharp light on “the worst human rights abuses of post-war Japan,” says attorney Koji Niisato, president of the Association of Victims of Forced Sterilization. This program, worthy of the Nazi regime and in some aspects even worse, was created after the fall of the Reich, but the state and the medical profession continue to dismiss it.
We must return to the genesis of the legal framework of this policy. After the war, the reconstruction of Japan began with a veritable population explosion. He wants to control his population and its “quality”. Yasaburô Taniguchi, parliamentarian and doctor, presented a “law for the protection…” in 1948.
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