The Nagasaki Municipal Government on Thursday appealed a recent ruling by the Nagasaki District Court that overseas atomic-bomb sufferers do not have to visit Japan to apply for victims' allowances.
On Sept. 28, the court handed down a ruling favoring Choi Gye Chol, a South Korean A-bomb victim who had sought the nullification of a city government decision to reject his application for allowances. He died at a hospital in Pusan in July, aged 78.
Prior to filing the appeal, Nagasaki officials conveyed the city's plans to Choi's daughter -- 39-year-old Mi Suk -- and his supporters.
The officials told them the city has no discretionary power over the issue as the reception of applications for allowances is a task entrusted to it by the central government.