The Fukuoka High Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling ordering the central government to pay a South Korean atomic-bomb survivor living abroad medical allowances designed to assist hibakusha.
The high court rejected a state appeal against a ruling by the Nagasaki District Court, which recognized in 2001 that A-bomb survivors living abroad are eligible to receive these allowances.
The district court had also ruled that the central government should pay the plaintiff, South Korean Lee Kang Young, unpaid allowances totaling 1.03 million yen.
In handing down the ruling, presiding Judge Akio Ishizuka said, "Hibakusha do not lose their status or the right to receive the medical allowance by living abroad."