Japan finally ‘sorry’ for sterilizing its disabled
Print Edition
Japan’s government apologized yesterday to tens of thousands of victims forcibly sterilized under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law, which was designed to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants,” and promised to pay compensation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said he was offering “sincere remorse and heartfelt apology” to the victims. It came after the parliament earlier yesterday enacted legislation to provide redress measures, including 3.2-million-yen (US$28,600) compensation for each victim.
An estimated 25,000 people were sterilized involuntarily under the 1948 Eugenics Protection Law which was in place until 1996. The law allowed doctors to sterilize people with disabilities. It was quietly renamed as the Maternity Protection Law in 1996, when the discriminatory condition was removed.
The redress legislation acknowledges that many people were forced to have operations to remove their reproductive organs or radiation treatment to get sterilized, causing them tremendous pain mentally and physically.
Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Takumi Nemoto said that as head of the department in charge of the compensation, he will do utmost to provide the one-time redress money for entitled recipients, many of them aging and handicapped, as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in his statement issued hours later, said the same problem should never be repeated.
“We will do all we can to achieve a society where no one is discriminated against, whether they have illnesses or handicaps, and live together while respecting each other’s personality and individuality,” he said.
The government had until recently maintained the sterilizations were legal at the time.
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