Japan's 1st forced sterilization plaintiff gets 15 million yen settlement

SENDAI (Kyodo) -- A woman who led off a series of lawsuits demanding compensation against the state for forced sterilization surgeries under a now-defunct eugenics protection law reached a settlement Tuesday at a high court and will receive 15 million yen ($104,000) in compensation.

The decision at Sendai High Court comes more than six years after she initially filed her suit and follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling on July 3 this year proclaiming the woman, who is in her 60s, and other plaintiffs were due compensation.

The top court sent the case back to the high court to determine the amount of compensation, after it ordered the government to pay damages to the plaintiffs, having judged the statute of limitations of 20 years for an unlawful act does not apply to cases involving the eugenics law, which was in effect between 1948 and 1996. It also said for the first time that the law was unconstitutional.

In January 2018, the woman, whose name was not disclosed, sued the government seeking 11 million yen in damages over her forced sterilization.

A total of 39 people filed lawsuits at 11 district courts and a branch court. The top court's ruling awarded compensation to victims in five of those cases.

Another plaintiff, a woman from Miyagi Prefecture in her 70s, who also won compensation in the July top court ruling, is currently seeking a settlement at the Sendai High Court.

The now-defunct eugenics protection law had allowed the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses, or hereditary disorders without their consent to prevent the birth of "inferior" offspring.

Separately, settlement was also reached the same day between three other plaintiffs who had demanded compensation from the state over their forced sterilization at Sendai District Court. The government agreed to pay them 15 million yen each.

Under the law about 25,000 people were sterilized, 16,000 of them without consent, according to government data.