Japan’s prime minister apologizes to people forcibly sterilized under former eugenics law

Tokyo CNN —

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has formally apologized to a group of plaintiffs who were forcibly sterilized under the country’s decades-long former eugenics law following their lengthy campaign for justice.

The Eugenic Protection Law, in place from 1948 to 1996, allowed authorities to forcibly sterilize people with disabilities, including those with mental disorders, hereditary diseases or physical deformities and leprosy. It also allowed forced abortions if either parent had those conditions.

At least 25,000 people were sterilized under the law, Kishida told a meeting at his official residence of about 130 survivors, many now elderly and in wheelchairs, public broadcaster NHK reported Wednesday.

“I decided to meet with you today in order to personally express my remorse and apology for the tremendous physical and mental suffering that many people have endured based on the former Eugenic Protection Law,” Kishida said.

The law was unconstitutional and had violated individuals’ human rights and dignity, the prime minister said, adding he had ordered authorities to prepare a new compensation plan for survivors, without sharing the details.

Plaintiffs and their supporters have argued that a previous government compensation offer of 3.2 million yen (about $20,000) each was too low. They won a significant victory earlier this month, when Japan’s Supreme Court ordered the government to pay 16.5 million yen (about $105,000) each in damages to plaintiffs of several lawsuits and 2.2 million yen ($14,000) to their spouses.

One plaintiff, Kikuo Kojima, described being taken to the hospital when he was 19, where he said he was “given the nickname ‘Schizophrenic’ and forced into eugenic surgery.”

“I will