A junior high school affiliated with Kanazawa University will issue a graduation diploma to an 81-year-old woman who was forced to leave its predecessor institution 66 years ago after being diagnosed with Hansen's disease, previously known as leprosy, university officials said.
The school will issue the diploma to Ai Asai, who currently lives in a government-run sanitarium in Gunma Prefecture, on Dec. 21, officials said Friday. It will be presented to her in a ceremony at the school Dec. 25.
Asai's support group in Ishikawa Prefecture started pressing the school and state in August to either reregister her or award her a diploma.
It will be the first time a school has issued a graduation certificate to someone who was forced to leave school after being diagnosed with Hansen's disease, according to the officials.
A native of Kanazawa, the prefectural capital, Asai entered the predecessor of the junior high school attached to Kanazawa University's education department in April 1933, her supporters said.
She was hoping to become a teacher, but was forced to leave the school after being diagnosed with the disease in September 1934, half a year before her expected graduation, they said.