Japan Top Court Orders Damages for Forced Sterilizations

Tokyo, July 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Supreme Court on Wednesday awarded damages to victims of forced sterilizations conducted under the now-defunct eugenic protection law. 

Handing down a unified ruling on five related damages suits, the top court's Grand Bench, presided over by Chief Justice Saburo Tokura, decided not to apply the 20-year statute of limitations for damages claims, a focal point of the case. It effectively handed total victory to the plaintiffs.
 

The top court found the old law, which was used to force people with disabilities to undergo sterilizations, unconstitutional and acknowledged the government's liability to pay damages to plaintiffs in the five lawsuits.
 

Applying the statute of limitations would "seriously violate the principles of justice and fairness and is totally unacceptable," the court said in the unanimous ruling of its 15 justices.
 

"We will promptly pay compensation based on the ruling," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference after the Supreme Court's decision.
 

The Supreme Court dismissed the government's appeals on four of the five suits for which high courts awarded damages to plaintiffs and finalized their rulings, while sending one suit back to Sendai High Court, which had rejected the damages claim.
 

The latest ruling, which holds the government liable for human rights violations in national policies, is expected to impact similar lawsuits filed across the country. The relief law for sterilization victims has been criticized for giving only small one-off payments to victims, and the top court ruling may fuel calls for its revision.
 

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday that he intends to meet with the plaintiffs this month to "directly convey remorse and apology."
 

It is the 13th case of the Supreme Court finding a law unconstitutional since the end of World War II.
 

The Grand Bench found that the provision in the former law that allowed forced sterilizations violated Article 13 and Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution, as it seriously violated the spirit of respect for individuals and was therefore discriminatory.
 

It also ruled for the first time that parliament's act of legislating the ex-law was illegal under the state redress law, stating, "It is clear that (the ex-law) violated rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution."
 

The court changed its interpretation of the statute of limitations, saying, "The statute of limitations cannot be claimed if the right to claim would be annulled in a way that is unacceptable because it is extremely contrary to the principles of justice and fairness."
 

It did not apply the statute to the latest decision as it found that the government's arguments amounted to an abuse of rights and a violation of good faith.
 

The district courts of Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe, where the five lawsuits were initially filed, all rejected damages claims citing the statute of limitations.
 

Of the high courts that took up the cases and ruled that the defunct law violated the Constitution, those of Sapporo, Tokyo and Osaka did not apply the statute of limitations and ordered damages in four cases.
 

Plaintiffs expressed happiness and relief after the Supreme Court ruling.
 

"It's like a dream, it's amazing," an 81-year-old plaintiff using the pseudonym Saburo Kita, who was forced to undergo sterilization at the age of 14, told supporters surrounding him in front of the Supreme Court gate. "It's thanks to everyone."

"Six years was a long time," Kikuo Kojima, an 83-year-old plaintiff from Sapporo, said of the time since he and others first filed their suit.
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