Japan’s Parliament on Monday published an extensive report on the nation’s Eugenic Protection Law, which for decades gave the government free rein to sterilize anyone with cognitive disabilities, mental illness or hereditary disorders to supposedly prevent “inferior” offspring, according to The Japan Times.
The report revealed that under the law, which was in place for 48 years following World War II, 24,993 victims were sterilized, and around 16,000 of them did not consent to the procedure — including two 9-year-old children.
Lawmakers unanimously adopted the legislation, a successor to Japan’s National Eugenic Law of 1940, at the time. According to The Japan Times, it aimed to combat a rising population amid post-war food shortages. A high school textbook from 1975 listed in the report said lawmakers sought to “improve” the “genetic predisposition of the entire public.”
The 9-year-old children mentioned in the report, a boy and a girl, were respectively sterilized in the early 1960s and 1970s.
The law was repealed in 1996, and new legislation in 2019 gave each victim $22,648 (¥3.2 million) in compensation, per the BBC. Thousands have since sued the government for more, however, pushing Parliament to launch a new probe in June 2020.
The 1,400-page report published Monday was damning.
It not only confirmed consent from adults wasn’t legally required and that a board at the prefectural government was allowed to examine and approve each case, but that numerous people were sterilized without that board ever being notified.
It also found the welfare ministry gave local authorities across Japan approval to lie to those with hereditary diseases, which included at least one victim who was told they were getting operated for appendicitis — only to be sterilized unwittingly instead.
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