June 23, 2009

A panel on Hibakusha healthcare, an advisory body to the Health and Welfare Minister, on June 22 decided to add hypothyroidism and hepatic dysfunction such as chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis to the government list of illnesses caused by exposure to radiation from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The panel, however, says it will recognize Hibakusha as suffering from A-bomb related diseases “only if their illnesses are proven to be caused by radiation.”

Many Hibakusha expressed strong dissatisfaction with this criterion and said, “This doesn’t mean an overall settlement of Hibakusha lawsuits.”

Hibakusha have called for the two illnesses to be added without condition to the list of officially recognized A-bomb diseases.

In the Hibakusha lawsuits filed nationwide, the government has so far lost in 18 consecutive lawsuits as the courts acknowledged many other diseases, including the two illnesses, as A-bomb-related diseases.

After the panel meeting on the same day, leader of the national group of plaintiffs in the Hibakusha lawsuits Yamamoto Hidenori said, “With such an unrealistic condition attached to recognition, we still have to continue struggling in court.”

Tanaka Terumi, secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers’ Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), said, “We must redouble our efforts to drastically improve the recognition criteria.” - Akahata, June 23, 2009