Draft legislation compiled by a suprapartisan group of lawmakers to provide relief for people who were forcibly sterilized under the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law falls short of holding the government responsible for their suffering.
More than 20 years after the law was amended to delete the discriminatory provision authorizing forced sterilization of people with mental disabilities, many of the victims and their relatives are aging, and most of the records of their sterilization surgeries are believed to have been lost. Prompt measures for relief of the victims, such as a lump sum payment being considered for the planned legislation, are needed. At the same time, identifying who was responsible for depriving them of the right to have children will also be important so that the nation doesn't repeat the same kind of mistaken policy.
The Eugenic Protection Law was put into force in 1948 against the background of the rapid increase in population and shortage of food immediately after Japan's defeat in World War II. The law institutionalized sterilization and abortion aimed at preventing births of what was deemed eugenically inferior offspring — and allowed sterilization surgery to be carried out on people with mental disabilities or illnesses and hereditary diseases even without their or their relatives' consent (or even by deceiving them). It was only as late as 1996 that the law was revised into the Maternal Protection Law by deleting the discriminatory clauses authorizing forced sterilization. About 25,000 people are estimated to have undergone such medical procedures under the law across the country.