The government filed an appeal Tuesday against a district court ruling that said the state is legally bound to compensate a group of Taiwanese Hansen's disease sufferers who had been segregated at a sanitarium during Japanese colonial rule.
The government, however, will swiftly consider how to provide appropriate compensation to the sufferers inside and outside Japan, and has decided to grant relief to those living in South Korea, Taiwan and four regions in the Pacific, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Jiro Kawasaki said before the government filed the appeal with the Tokyo High Court.
The four Pacific island areas are the Republic of Palau, Saipan, Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia, and Jaluit in the Marshall Islands.
Bills are being planned for submission to the Diet next year to provide redress to just over 400 people in those places, welfare ministry sources said.
On Oct. 25, the district court ruled in favor of 25 Taiwanese plaintiffs, while rejecting a similar suit filed by 117 South Koreans.
The South Korean plaintiffs have appealed the ruling to the Tokyo High Court.
Under Japan's Hansen Disease compensation law, people who were isolated at sanitariums in Japan are eligible for compensation from the government, regardless of nationality or where they now reside.
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