The Fukuoka District Court on Monday ordered the government to pay ¥12.5 million each to two chronic hepatitis B patients who argued that the 20-year compensation window the government set for victims infected in vaccination programs is unfair.
Under a special law, the government provides compensation payments to people who were infected with hepatitis B as a result of the systematic sharing of needles in past vaccination programs. The payments are reduced if the people do not take legal action within 20 years of developing symptoms.
The plaintiffs, who live in Fukuoka Prefecture, contracted hepatitis B through a mass early childhood vaccination program. Symptoms had improved for both at one point before they suffered relapses, one in 2004 and the other in 2008.