The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld lower court decisions that ordered the Health and Welfare Ministry to provide special medical coverage granted to survivors of the atomic attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to a partially paralyzed Nagasaki woman who did not meet government criteria for such coverage.
By rejecting the ministry's appeal against a 1997 high court ruling that stated 58-year-old Hideko Matsuya was a victim of radiation sickness, the top court ruling effectively widens the door for state-covered medical care given to hibakusha, survivors of the bombings.
Tuesday's ruling marks the first time the Supreme Court has issued a decision regarding the Health Ministry's process of designating atomic bomb-related illnesses. Concluding a case that lasted almost 12 years after Matsuya first filed suit in September 1988, the top court threw out the state's appeal without even hearing the opening arguments.