The government will draft a law outlining compensation for victims of asbestos-related illnesses, including those who lived near asbestos-linked factories and the families of those who worked with the unburnable material, the Cabinet decided Friday.
The government aims to submit the bill to the Diet in January, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said in a press conference.
The legal step is needed because the government has conceded it didn't do enough to protect people against asbestos, even though it was warned by international experts that it could cause cancer as far back as 1972, he indicated.