Sterilized Without Consent At The Age Of 14, This Man Gets Rp1.8 Billion In Compensation

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Joe Gratz)

JAKARTA - A Japanese court ordered the central government on Friday last week to compensate a man for his forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, the second decision among similar charges filed nationwide, which could potentially affect future case outcomes.

Overturning the lower court's decision, the Tokyo High Court found the 1948 law unconstitutional and awarded compensation of 15 million yen, or approximately Rp.1,832,284,756, to the 78-year-old plaintiff, who goes by the pseudonym Saburo Kita. Originally, the Tokyo resident demanded 30 million yen.

Kita was sterilized without consent in 1957 when he was about 14 years old, placed in a child welfare facility for alleged delinquency in Miyagi Prefecture in the northeast. He sued the government in May 2018 in the Tokyo District Court.

"It's been a long road. I feel like I'm dreaming of getting this verdict and it's full of emotion," Kita said at a press conference following the high court's ruling, reports Kyodo News March 11.

Meanwhile, Presiding Judge Yutaka Hirata made a comment after the verdict, which judges rarely do, saying, "I want the plaintiff to live happily after this. Of course, it is the responsibility of the government, as well as everyone in society, to create a society where discrimination there is not any."

As of 2018, similar lawsuits have been filed in nine courts across Japan, but until now, only the Osaka High Court ordered state compensation in February.

Several Japanese courts have previously highlighted the unconstitutionality of the law, but dismissed claims for damages because the statute of limitations expired 20 years after the forced operation.

In Kita's case, the Tokyo District Court admitted in June 2020 that the forced operation violated his freedom to choose whether to have children guaranteed under Article 13 of the Japanese Constitution. But, it rejected claims for damages, saying the statute of limitations had expired.

Tokyo High Court illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/663highland)

Last month, the Osaka High Court became the first to award restitution for forced sterilization, saying the statute of limitations should not be applied because it is "totally against justice and fairness."

At that time, the court ordered the state to pay a total of 27.5 million yen or about Rp. 3,359,188,720 to the three plaintiffs.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs at the Osaka High Court, released a statement describing the Tokyo High Court as fulfilling its responsibilities, and also urged the government not to appeal to the Supreme Court, as it did after they won in the Osaka High Court.

Separately, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Friday the government would consider whether to appeal the Tokyo High Court ruling, after examining it with the relevant ministry.

"For the victims whose lives were stolen, the last redemption the government can make is not to appeal the decision of the Tokyo High Court," they said.

To note, between 1948 and 1996, eugenics protection laws allowed the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses, or hereditary disorders.

About 25,000 people were sterilized, including 16,500 who were operated on without their consent, according to government data.

The Osaka court also accused lawmakers since then of "negligence", for enacting the law even though it was clearly inhumane and discriminatory.

A law was enacted in 2019 to pay 3.2 million yen in state compensation to everyone undergoing forced sterilization.

Meanwhile, as of the end of February, the government had authorized lump sum payments to 974 people, according to the welfare ministry.

The law was finally overturned in 1996, after a disabled Japanese woman called for its abolition at the UN-coordinated International Conference on Population and Development two years earlier.