Aggregated News
Campaigners in Japan have reacted angrily to a government report revealing that children as young as nine were among thousands of people who were forcibly sterilised under a eugenics law that was not repealed until the 1990s.
The 1,400-page report, submitted to parliament this week, details how, between 1948 and 1996, about 16,500 people were operated on without their consent under the law, which aimed to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants … and to protect the life and health of the mother”. Most of the victims were women.
Another 8,000 other people gave their consent – almost certainly under pressure – while almost 60,000 women had abortions because of hereditary illnesses.
The two nine-year-olds who were sterilised were a boy and a girl, the report said.
The victims’ long campaign for redress has highlighted the Japanese state’s mistreatment of people with disabilities and chronic conditions in the period after the second world war.
In 2019, MPs passed legislation offering each victim government compensation of ¥3.2m ($22,800) – an amount campaigners have said does not reflect the suffering the victims...
