Japanese court upholds ruling in eugenics case

SENDAI Kyodo - a Japanese high court on Thursday upheld an appeal for damages by two women who were sterilized under a now-defunct eugenics-protecting law, upholding a lower court decision due to the 20-year statute of limitations passing.

The two plaintiffs in their 60s and 70s in Miyagi Prefecture had sought a total of 71.5 million yen $511,000 argues that the law deprived them of self-determination regarding giving birth and raising children, which is guaranteed under the Constitution.

The ruling came despite four courts' rulings in the Sendai High Court since February 2022 that awarded damages over forced sterilization.

Presiding Judge Masako Ishiguri said the 1948 law had caused immense mental and physical pain but denied damages on the basis that the 20-year statute of limitations for illegal acts had elapsed, as said by the Sendai District Court.

The court ruled that the eugenics protection law in effect until 1996 was unconstitutional in its 2019 ruling. The high court ruled that the law was unconstitutional.

Even without consent, the law allowed the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses or hereditary conditions, even without their consent. According to government data, some 25,000 people were sterilized.

Among the defendants was a woman who went by the name Junko Iizuka in her 70s. The suit, filed in 2018 in the district court, was a catalyst for many cases going to trial over the defunct law.

Following the ruling, one of her legal representatives criticized it for ignoring the increasing number of winning cases and not facing the damage that has been caused and added that they will appeal as soon as possible. In April 2019, Japan's parliament enacted a law to provide state compensation to every person who underwent forced sterilization. But the uniform distribution has attracted criticism.

The court's decision came just after the district court's decision in May. In rejecting the damage, it said that applying the statute of limitations is logical because the importance of quickly establishing legality is set down in law. Iizuka's mother was 16 when she was forced to undergo a sterilization. Her marriage failed and she suffered from health issues.

The other plaintiff, who is in her 60s, was sterilized without her consent based on a decision by a prefectural government review panel, after she was diagnosed as having a genetic mental deficiency at 15 years old. She said the procedure caused her anxiety, including preventing her from finding a partner to marry.