• Thousands of disabled Japanese were forced sterilization under eugenics law between 1948 and 1996
• Supreme Court rules for 1st time that now-defunct eugenics protection law violated constitution

ISTANBUL

Japan's Supreme Court ordered the government on Wednesday to compensate victims of forced sterilization surgeries carried out between the 1950s and 1970s under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, ruling for the first time that the law violated the constitution.

In a decision on five lawsuits in which plaintiffs sought compensation, the court ruled that the 20-year statute of limitations for an unlawful act does not apply to cases involving the eugenics law, which was in effect from 1948 to 1996, Tokyo-based Kyodo news agency reported.

More than 16,500 women and men were sterilized without their consent. Japan previously rejected compensation demands, citing the fact that sterilizations were legal during that time.

The law was abolished in 1996, two years after a disabled Japanese woman raised the issue at the UN International Conference on Population and Development in Egypt.

The ruling allows victims of the law, which permitted the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses, or hereditary disorders without their consent to prevent the birth of "inferior" offspring, to be compensated under the terms of the unified decision, the news agency added.

The decision was reached unanimously by all 15 judges, who cited violations of constitutional rights to bodily autonomy and equality.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed profound regret and intended to meet with the plaintiffs, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government would promptly offer compensation, it said.

The plaintiffs had filed lawsuits in various Japanese courts since 2018.

The Japanese parliament passed a law in 2019 to pay $27,885 to people who underwent forced sterilization, but it faced criticism for the "uniform amount" set for each person.