Forced Sterilization Victims to Receive Compensation Under New Legislation

A suprapartisan group of legislators in Japan has decided to establish a project team aimed at enacting new legislation to compensate victims who were forced to undergo sterilization surgeries under the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law. This decision follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that declared such practices unconstitutional.

The project team, led by former Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura, plans to submit a member-initiated bill during the extraordinary Diet session in the autumn. "It was a very serious ruling," Tamura said. "We must reflect on it and create a compensation scheme based on the judgment. We'd like to present a solution as soon as possible."

The plaintiffs and their legal team attended the meeting, calling for the enactment of new legislation to compensate all victims. They plan to request compensation of ¥15 million for the victims themselves and more than ¥2 million for their spouses.

The project team will determine the specific amounts of compensation and the recipients, taking into account the opinions of the plaintiffs. "The law must also address those who were not part of the lawsuit," Tamura said.

Until the law was abolished in 1996, about 25,000 people, including those with intellectual disabilities or hereditary visual or hearing impairments, were forced to undergo sterilization surgeries.

The parliamentary group also confirmed their aim to adopt a Diet resolution reflecting on the severe human rights violations caused by the defunct law. This resolution will serve as a formal acknowledgement of the suffering endured by the victims and a commitment to preventing such injustices from occurring again.