Japan court orders damages over forced sterilization for first time

Osaka – The Osaka High Court on Tuesday ordered the state to compensate three people with disabilities over forced sterilization under the now-defunct eugenics protection law, the first time damages have been awarded in one of several similar suits filed across the nation.

The court told the central government to pay a total of ¥27.5 million in damages to the three people — a couple and a woman in their 70s and 80s — and recognized the eugenics law as unconstitutional.

While some courts had underlined the law’s unconstitutionality, demands for damages had been rejected on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired 20 years after the forced surgeries. The three had sought a combined ¥55 million in damages.

Between 1948 and 1996, the eugenics law authorized the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses or hereditary disorders to prevent the birth of “inferior” offspring.

About 25,000 people with disabilities were sterilized under the law, including around 16,500 who were operated on without their consent, according to government data.

After neglecting the issue for years, parliament enacted legislation in April 2019 to pay ¥3.2 million in state compensation to each person who underwent forced sterilization, but there was a backlash over the uniform amount.

In 1994, a Japanese woman with disabilities called for the abolishment of the law at the U.N.-coordinated International Conference on Population and Development held in Egypt, which became a catalyst for its abolition two years later.