The government was ordered Wednesday to pay a South Korean survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki a total of 1.03 million yen in health care allowances.
The ruling covers allowances the government failed to pay the man after he left Japan following a brief stay for treatment in 1994.
The Nagasaki District Court ruled in favor of Lee Kang Young, 74, who claimed that the 1994 Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law does not stipulate that A-bomb survivors, or hibakusha, living outside Japan are excluded from receiving such benefits. He had demanded 4 million yen in compensation.
This is the second time the nation's courts have ruled that medical payouts be awarded to A-bomb victims who have left Japan. In June, the Osaka District Court ordered the prefectural government to pay another South Korean, Kwak Kwi Hun, 77, around 34,000 yen per month from August 1998 to May 2003 in medical allowances.