The health ministry is probing allegations of human rights abuse carried out through the forced hospitalization of homeless people under the Tuberculosis Control Law, the ministry said Thursday.
In its original form, the law allowed prefectural governments and major municipal governments to issue nonbinding orders to have people suspected of being potential tuberculosis hazards to others in the same dwelling hospitalized at the public's expense.
In 1989, in the face of rising TB infections, the then Health and Welfare Ministry expanded the interpretation of the law so that people who live alone but also come into contact with others could be forcibly hospitalized.
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