Passage of time hinders their pursuit of government redress for deprivation of reproductive rights
The struggle for victims of the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law — which for decades compelled people with physical or intellectual disabilities or hereditary diseases to undergo sterilisation to prevent the birth of “eugenically inferior” children — has gone on for nearly a quarter of a century after its discriminatory provision was finally scrapped in 1996.
If government policy under the law gravely damaged the victims’ basic human rights — as court rulings acknowledge — they deserve compensation that matches their suffering. But the passage of time stands in the way of the victims’ pursuit of government redress for depriving them of their reproductive rights under the misguided policy.
The plaintiff is among the approximately 21,000 people who were subjected to sterilisation surgery — at least 16,500 of them against their will — after the eugenics law was introduced in 1948 in response to an acute food shortage amid a sharp population increase after Japan’s defeat in World War 2. A government guideline promoting the policy stated that people could be forced to undergo surgery through deception or the use of anaesthesia.
While similar laws in other countries were repealed in the 1970s, it was only in 1996 that the discriminatory provision authorising forced sterilisation was scrapped. Even then the government didn’t offer the victims an apology or compensation until 2019, when legislation was enacted to provide one-off relief.
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