Forced Sterilization Victims Ask Kishida To Resolve Issue Fully; Call For The Creation Of A Discrimination-Free Society

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:47 JST, July 18, 2024

Following their victory at the Supreme Court earlier this month, victims who were forced to undergo sterilization surgery under the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law called on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday to ensure that the issue is comprehensively resolved and to create a society free of discrimination.

On Wednesday, about 130 plaintiffs and others spoke of their indignation at being deprived of a future with children, and of the painful experiences they went through, during a meeting with Kishida at the Prime Minister’s Office. Some of them said through tears that they wanted their old bodies back, or that they had suffered due to workplace discrimination, too.

A group of people including Koji Niisato, 72, the coleader of a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys, handed Kishida a letter demanding several measures be taken to address the issue, including the enactment of a law to compensate all victims of the surgery.

Speaking at a press conference held in Tokyo after the meeting, Niisato said, in a trembling voice, “We’ve made it this far at last. It’s taken so long. But now that we’ve gotten an apology from the prime minister, I think we have reached one of our goals.”

After the first lawsuit seeking compensation for the harms caused by the law was filed with the Sendai District Court in 2018, many more were filed across the country. As six plaintiffs have died in the meantime, one lawyer attended the press conference carrying a photograph of one of the deceased.

According to the Children and Families Agency, there are 13 similar lawsuits pending in courts nationwide.

During his meeting with the victims, Kishida announced that he will withdraw government’s claim that the statute of limitations under the Civil Code at that time — under which the right to seek compensation would expire 20 years from the date of an illegal act — should be applied in the series of the lawsuits.

‘I will never forget’

Among the victorious plaintiffs is Kikuo Kojima, 83, of Sapporo. He was put up for adoption soon after his birth. He contracted polio, leaving him with a disabled right leg for which he was bullied. At age 19, when he was leading a desolate life, he was forced to undergo sterilization.

Kojima was handcuffed by a police officer in front of his home and put into a psychiatric hospital in Sapporo. It was one-sidedly determined that he was mentally ill, and when he was sterilized, a nurse told him that this had to be done “since it would be terrible if people like you had children.”

Kojima took on jobs such as driving a cab, and he married his wife Reiko, now 81, shortly before he turned 40. He was unable to tell her about the surgery out of fear of damaging their relationship. “I was going to take that to my grave,” he said.

In January 2018, hearing about the lawsuit filed with the Sendai District Court brought back all the anger and sadness he had been suppressing. When he confided in Reiko about what had happened to him, she nodded quietly and suggested him seeking advice from a lawyer.

The Kojimas decided, after filing their lawsuit in May 2018, that they would let their real names and faces be made public during their court proceedings, in hope that their actions would spur other victims to speak out.

It was estimated that half of the roughly 25,000 victims of surgical sterilization under the old law had already passed away as of 2017.

Meanwhile, as of the end of May of this year, only 1,100 people had received the lump-sum payments they were entitled to based on a relief law enacted in 2019.

On Wednesday, Kishida grasped Kojima’s hand and told him that the government “did a bad thing” responding to his remarks that he will never forget that he was forced to undergo the surgery.

“Please create a system where everyone can receive compensation, even if many more victims are found in the future,” Kojima told the prime minister.