Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 23 - 29 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

JCP demands Osaka gov’t accept court decision to give foreign Hibakusha medical compensation

The Japanese Communist Party members of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly urged the Osaka government on October 25 to accept a court decision that ordered authorities to bear the medical costs of Hibakusha living abroad.

Successive Japanese governments have failed to provide full medical treatment compensation to foreigners who were exposed to A-bomb radiation in Japan in 1945 and later returned to their countries, claiming that the A-bomb Victims Relief Law does not apply to them.

In 2011, Korean A-bomb survivors residing in South Korea and their families filed a lawsuit with the Osaka District Court, demanding that the Osaka government retract its decision to reject their applications for compensation to meet their medical expenses. The district court ruled on October 24 that Hibakusha living overseas should be covered by the law, and ordered the prefectural authorities to accept the plaintiffs’ applications.

In a written request the JCP representatives submitted to the authorities, they noted that the number of A-bomb victims living abroad, including many Koreans who were forced to work in Japan, totals about 4,500, and that it is urgently needed to provide them with full medical expenses as they are getting older. It also points out that it is only natural for the Japanese government to fulfill its responsibility for the medical treatment and compensation of foreign Hibakusha.

In that action, JCP member of the prefectural assembly Miyahara Takeshi said, “The national and prefectural governments should respect the court judgment,” stressing that Japan has to be held responsible for its colonial rule of Korea and inviting the atomic bombings in the end.

Osaka Governor Matsui Ichiro told reporters on October 28 that his government will accept the court judgment.