Japan’s Upper and Lower Houses have passed a long sought-after bill to provide compensation to people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilized under the former Eugenic Protection Law.
The bill was compiled by a cross-party group of Diet members in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in July that the former law was unconstitutional.
The Lower House also passed a resolution to formally apologize to the victims and rectify the damage they were subject to.
The purpose of the former law, which was enacted in 1948 and remained in effect until 1996, was to “prevent the birth of defective offspring.”
It is estimated that about 25,000 sterilization operations and 59,000 abortions were performed under the now-defunct law.
Since 2018, there have been a series of lawsuits seeking damages from the central government.
Under the new compensation system, the government will pay 15 million yen to victims of forced sterilization and 5 million yen to their spouses.
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