The Nagasaki District Court on Wednesday ordered the government to pay a medical stipend to a Japanese survivor of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki whose payments were cut while he was living overseas.
It is the first time that a hibakusha who has moved overseas has won a ruling granting unpaid medical stipends during the absence.
Masahito Hirose, 73, was awarded 330,000 yen, the full amount he was seeking from the national government and city of Nagasaki for the 10 months he lived in China beginning in October 1994.
The court ruled that it is the national government's responsibility and not that of local governments to pay stipends to hibakusha.