Editorial: Diet must right wrongs wrought by past “eugenics law”

June 27 , 2020

In 1948, Japan enacted a so-called “eugenics law” that forced individuals with mental or genetic disabilities to undergo sterilization over the next 38 years. The nation’s two legislative chambers—the House of Representatives and House of Councilors—have recently agreed to jointly examine the immense injury inflicted on victims, interview them and to craft a formal report on the Diet’s role and responsibility in passing the law.

Some 25,000 people were sterilized for being deemed “defective,” of which roughly 16,500 operations were conducted without consent. In response to one woman’s lawsuit, the Diet passed a reparations bill in 2019 that would pay every victim 3.2 million yen.

In a related development, a panel of inquiry for an association comprised of 136 medical institutions issued on June 25 a formal apology for the involvement of medical professionals in establishing the former law and carrying out its provisions.

The bicameral Diet investigation is not expected to run smoothly, however. Due to the number of years that have passed, many of the government documents have been lost or are in such poor condition they can no longer be restored. Nor will some victims come forth for interviews, fearing the public stigma and loss of privacy in the course of the inquiry.

Nonetheless, these are but some small steps in battling—and eventually prevailing over—discrimination against any person or peoples, perspectives that remain a very much part of society, not only in Japan but throughout the world as well.