Lawmakers create group for forced sterilization victims

March 7, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese lawmakers have created a non-partisan group to discuss assistance measures for people who were forced to undergo sterilization operations under the now-defunct eugenic protection law. The group held its inaugural meeting in an office building for the House of Representatives members in Tokyo on Tuesday. The group will study the actual situation surrounding the practice and consider whether to introduce a lawmaker-initiated bill to provide assistance to victims. The 1948 law justified sterilization operations on people with hereditary diseases, mental disabilities and leprosy. According to the health ministry, some 25,000 sterilization surgeries were conducted under the law. Of them, about 16,500 were performed without the consent of those undergoing the surgeries. The lawmaker group is headed by the Liberal Democratic Party's Hidehisa Otsuji, former vice president of the House of Councillors. The inaugural meeting was attended by lawyer Koji Niisato, who leads a group of attorneys for people who filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for forced sterilization operations. He briefed participants about the suit. The LDP-led ruling camp "is likely to wait for a judicial decision," Otsuji told reporters after the meeting, speaking about the timing of deciding support measures for victims. Jiji Press