The Japanese government started a process Friday to compensate victims of forced sterilization surgery under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, aiming to provide remedy to those who have not joined lawsuits against the state. The move comes as a law took effect to provide damages to those affected by what…

The Japanese government started a process Friday to compensate victims of forced sterilization surgery under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, aiming to provide remedy to those who have not joined lawsuits against the state.

  • oce 🐆
    12•19 hours ago

    The eugenics law permitted sterilization or abortion surgery for people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses, or hereditary disorders without their consent, aiming to prevent “inferior” traits from entering the gene pool.
    About 25,000 people were sterilized, 16,500 of them without consent, and there were around 59,000 cases of abortion surgery under the law, according to government data, with over 23,000 victims estimated to be alive.
    The government will pay 15 million yen each to victims of forced sterilization surgery under the 1948-1996 eugenics law, 5 million yen to spouses of the victims and a lump sum of 2 million yen to those forced to undergo abortion surgery.

    15M JPY is about 100k USD, and 4 years of median annual salary.