A new parliamentary report from Japan has revealed that approximately 25,000 people were sterilized under the country’s former eugenics laws, the majority of whom did not consent. Some of the victims were children.
According to The Japan Times, the laws were in place from 1948 through 1966, and approximately 65% of the people sterilized were forced to undergo the procedures. Children as young as nine years old were among the victims, and many of them believed they were being treated for a legitimate illness.
People with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, or hereditary disorders were among those forcibly sterilized, as the Japanese government wanted to prevent the births of so-called “inferior” children. Japanese politicians also wanted to cut population rates due to food shortages after World War II. Though the law ended in 1966, eugenic propaganda continued to spread long after; The Japan Times cited a high school textbook from the 1970s which said the government was working on the “country’s eugenics to improve and enhance the genetic predisposition of the entire public.”
A previous report several years ago found that deaf people were coerced to undergo abortions and sterilizations, though the number of people affected was said to be much less. That report examined the cases of 127 people, a far cry from the 25,000 now being acknowledged.
In a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the Japanese government “sincerely reflects on and deeply apologizes for” the forced sterilizations. Legislation was approved in 2019 to pay ¥3.2 million to each person who was a victim of the scheme, yet that amount — which equals just $22,000 — is said by some to not be a fair reparation.
“The legislature should take responsibility in re-examining the compensation law and other means through which (the government) should extend relief to victims so that such a tragedy will never be repeated,” Yasutaka Ichinokawa, a professor of medical sociology at the University of Tokyo, said, according to The Japan Times.
One anonymous victim, who is now 80 and was sterilized at age 14, said in the report that Japan “had been doing terrible things by deceiving children.” At the press conference, the victim added, “I would like the state not to shroud the issue in darkness but take our sufferings seriously soon.”
A group of lawyers representing the victims said they still have questions, which the government is not answering. Koji Niisato, who is one of the co-heads of the legal group, praised the report, but also pointed out much more is still needed, saying, “The report did not reveal why the law was created, why it took 48 years to amend it or why the victims were not compensated.”
