LDP, Komeito mull bill to compensate disabled for forced sterilization under old law
(Mainichi Japan)
The secretaries-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito agreed on Feb. 21 that the parties would start considering relief measures for disabled people who were forced to undergo sterilization surgeries under the now-defunct Eugenics Protection Act.
The ruling coalition will organize a project team and is expected to submit lawmaker-initiated legislation providing relief measures.
Komeito Secretary-General Yoshihisa Inoue raised the issue at a meeting in Tokyo on Feb. 21, saying, "We should provide some form of relief," to which his LDP counterpart Toshihiro Nikai agreed.
LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Hiroshi Moriyama, who was present at the meeting, said to reporters, "Our consensus was that it's an extremely important issue, and therefore the ruling coalition will start to look into it."
Both parties plan to launch discussion within their policy research councils, and then organize the joint project team. An executive of Komeito commented, "We can't afford to spend a long time on this."
