Woman sues Japan govt over forced eugenic sterilisation

TOKYO: A Japanese woman in her 60s has sued the government over her forced sterilisation as a teenager under a now-defunct eugenics law, according to a court official and local media reports.

The woman, whose name was not given, was just 15 when the government forced her to undergo a sterilisation procedure in 1972 after she was diagnosed with a mental disability, Japanese media reported.

She is reportedly seeking 11 million yen (RM391,920) in damages, claiming that the state failed to offer relief measures while seriously violating her human rights under the law, which remained in force until 1996.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday, a court spokesman said, declining to give further details.

The plaintiff ’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Some 16,000 people were forcibly sterilised under the notorious eugenics law, according to the Japanese bar association.

“We have had agonising days... we stood up to make this society brighter,” the woman’s sister-in-law said at a televised press conference yesterday.

Asked about the lawsuit, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato declined to provide a comment, saying that he was not aware of the details of the case.

The government was prepared to have talks individually with those who needed support, but “has no plans to offer blanket measures” to all victims of forced sterilisation, a health ministry official in charge of the issue said.

Children as young as nine were also forced to undergo the procedure, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

Germany and Sweden had similar eugenics laws, and the governments there have apologised and paid compensation to the victims.

Under Japan’s eugenics law, some leprosy patients were also forced into abortions because of policies that forbade them from having children.

In 2005, a Japanese court for the first time ordered the state to pay damages to a former leprosy sufferer who was affected by the law.