The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is considering earmarking about 500 million yen from the budget to help hibakusha living overseas come to Japan for treatment beginning in fiscal 2002, ministry officials said Tuesday.
In providing the assistance, the ministry has no plans to apply the Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law, but will instead revise its regulations dealing with hibakusha -- survivors of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The remarks follow recommendations issued Monday by a panel of experts under the ministry.
The officials said the government will change a system requiring overseas survivors to apply for a hibakusha pocketbook every time they visit Japan. A health ministry official said that once a survivor obtains a hibakusha pocketbook, it will be valid even after the individual leaves Japan and returns home.
The ministry has so far limited provision of benefits under the 1994 law to hibakusha living in Japan, barring overseas victims from free physical checkups and medical treatment as well as medical allowances.
Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi said after a Cabinet meeting that he will respect the expert panel's recommendations that financial support be extended to those survivors outside Japan.
"The panel members agreed that it is unreasonable that the degree of support for hibakusha varies depending on where they live," Sakaguchi said. "I would like to settle the issue by respecting the report."
The panel proposed Monday that the government create a fund to provide support to atomic bomb survivors living abroad as they are ineligible for state allowances.