High court awards damages over forced sterilization in 2nd case

Mar 12, 2022 | News On Japan

Mar 12, 2022 (Japan Today) - A Japanese court ordered the central government Friday to compensate a man over his forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, the second such ruling among similar suits filed nationwide, potentially affecting the outcome of future cases.

Overturning a lower court decision, the Tokyo High Court found the 1948 law unconstitutional and awarded 15 million yen ($128,000) in damages to the 78-year-old plaintiff, who uses the pseudonym Saburo Kita. The Tokyo resident had demanded 30 million yen.

Kita had been sterilized without informed consent in 1957 when he was around 14 years old and placed in a child welfare facility for alleged delinquencies in the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi. He sued the government in May 2018 at the Tokyo District Court.

"It was a long road. I feel like I'm dreaming to have gotten this ruling and full of emotion," Kita said at a press conference following the high court ruling.

Presiding Judge Yutaka Hirata made a comment after the ruling, which is rare for a judge to do, saying, "I want the plaintiff to live happily after this. It is, of course, the government's responsibility, as well as everyone within society, to create a society where discrimination does not exist."

Source: ANNnewsCH

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