Japan Press Weekly

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2023 May 10 - 16 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Takahashi: Time limit for claiming lump-sum payment in compensation for forced eugenic sterilization should be extended

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko at a House special committee meeting on May 11 demanded that the 20-year time limit for claiming the lump-sum payment in compensation for forced eugenic sterilization be extended.

For 48 years until 1996, under the Eugenic Protection Act, about 25,000 Hansen's disease sufferers and persons with hereditary diseases, intellectual disabilities, or mental disorders were forced to undergo sterilization operations.

So far, four high courts and three district courts have found that the forced sterilization operations were unconstitutional and that the government has the responsibility to compensate the victims.

Takahashi noted that the Osaka High Court in March ruled that "the Japanese Constitution does not allow" the government, which had made the law infringing upon constitutional human rights, to escape its liability for compensation using the excuse of abiding by the statute of limitations.

She pointed out that only 1,047 of the 25,000 victims received lump-sum payment in compensation from the government, adding, "This number is excessively small. The government should extend the time limit for making the claim from the current 20 years."

She proposed that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio meet with plaintiffs who are calling on the government to issue an official apology, make fact-checking efforts, and work to eradicate eugenic thought.

Past related article:
> Forced sterilization victims sue gov't [May 18, 2018]