Three Japanese sue over sterilization

TOKYO — Three Japanese who were forcibly sterilized under a government policy decades ago filed lawsuits Thursday demanding an apology and compensation, in a growing movement seeking official redress.

The two men and a woman, all in their 70s, are among at least 16,500 people who were sterilized without consent under the 1948 Eugenics Protection Law that was in place until 1996.

The law, designed to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants,” allowed doctors to perform abortions or sterilize people with disabilities.

The three plaintiffs filed their cases Thursday at district courts in Tokyo and the northern cities of Sendai and Sapporo.

Their lawyers say the government’s implementation of the law violated the victims’ right to self-determination, reproductive health and equality.

The government has maintained that the sterilizations were legal.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuits.

But recent efforts by human-rights groups and lawyers have uncovered evidence including medical records of the victims, prompting the health ministry to investigate for the first time.

A group of lawmakers is working on possible relief measures.