Former leprosy patients urge minister to fully accept court decision

In their intensified campaign, former leprosy patients and lawyers are
calling on the Health and Welfare minister to fully accept a local court
decision to settle the Hansen disease suit.

On December 18, about 200 members of the plaintiffs group of former
patients and lawyers gathered at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Demanding that Minister Sakaguchi Chikara fully accept the Kumamoto
District Court ruling which called on the government to compensate families
of former patients and those who did not enter designated sanatoriums.

The Kumamoto District Court on the same day issued a additional opinion
note to its December 7 recommendation, and requested that the government
make an out-of-the-court settlement with them.

Former leprosy patients insisted that these people had also been
seriously damaged by the state policy of isolating Hansen patients. Although
a few days are left till December 21 when the government-patient meeting is
scheduled, the government has not made public if it accepts the
recommendation. (end)