Japan plans to ask China to scrap a ban on the entry of leprosy sufferers to the country during the Beijing Olympic Games when they hold a bilateral dialogue on human rights in Beijing next week for the first time in eight years, government sources said Saturday.
At the human rights dialogue set for Tuesday and Wednesday, Japan will tell China that the ban lacks a medical basis, the sources said.
The organizing committee of the Beijing Olympic Games revealed a guideline June 2 declaring anyone who suffers from leprosy, mental illness, sexually transmitted disease, open pulmonary tuberculosis and those who may commit terrorist acts cannot come to China during the event from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24.
Earlier this month, a Japanese group created by academics and citizens to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against leprosy sufferers asked the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo to abolish the ban on leprosy sufferers.
The U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva unanimously approved a resolution in June calling for the elimination of discrimination against leprosy sufferers.
For almost 90 years from 1907 to 1996, Japan segregated people with leprosy, or Hansen's disease, on the erroneous notion that the disease was highly infectious.
At the upcoming dialogue with China, Japan also plans to take up the human rights issue in Tibet, the sources said.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed in May to resume bilateral human rights dialogue which has been suspended since January 2000.