Former Hansen's disease patients from Taiwan and South Korea met separately with the justice and health ministers Thursday, demanding compensation from the government as victims of Japan's Draconian policy of segregating the patients.
The action comes two days after the Tokyo District Court's split decision over lawsuits filed by the former patients to overturn the health ministry's administrative decision to deny them compensation -- the Taiwanese claim was recognized while the South Korean claim was not.
According to the plaintiffs' lawyers, the group asked both ministers to not appeal the ruling on the Taiwanese, stressing that there is no reason why former Hansen's patients from Taiwan and South Korea should be excluded from the domestic compensation law for victims, which took effect in 2001.
Attorney Naoko Kunimune said both ministers seemed receptive to the request.
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