Some 40 lawyers in Japan have decided to support South Korean Hansen's disease patients seeking compensation from Tokyo for the compulsory quarantine policy pursued under Japanese colonial rule.
According to the lawyers, 28 South Korean patients will seek redress Thursday, basing their claim on Japan's compensation law for Hansen's disease patients.
The government is likely to reject their claim, however, as the law does not cover patients in former colonies.
The lawyers will represent the patients when they file their suit with a Japanese court, following the government's expected rejection of their claim, they said.
During Japan's rule of the Korean Peninsula, Hansen's disease patients there were placed in a sanitarium, forced to do hard labor and were sterilized, the lawyers said.