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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP Kasai demands Hansen's disease compensation to cover former colonies

Taking up the previous day's Tokyo District Court decisions on leprosy that supported Taiwanese plaintiffs' claim but rejected Korean plaintiffs' demands, Japanese Communist Party representative Kasai Akira on October 26 at the House of Representatives health committee meeting demanded that the government apply the Hansen's Disease Compensation Law to former leprosy patients quarantined while they were under Japan's colonial rule.

Kasai pointed out that the Study Panel on Hansen's Disease, the third-party institution established by the health ministry in the wake of the 2001 Kumamoto District Court's ruling that the country's segregation policy was unconstitutional, concluded that facilities in South Korea and in Taiwan be treated the same as Japanese national sanatoriums in its final report to the minister.

Health Minister Otsuji Hidehisa replied, "We will consider and deal with the court decisions by discussing them with the government agencies concerned, and will take the panel's final report seriously."

On October 25, in lawsuits filed by 142 Taiwanese and South Korean former leprosy patients under Japan's colonial rule to demand compensation based on the Hansen's Disease Compensation Law, the Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Taiwanese plaintiffs but against Koreans. On the following day, 117 Korean plaintiffs appealed the verdict. -- Akahata, October 27, 2005