The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a lower court's recognition of two people as sufferers of atomic bomb-related illnesses who the government had refused to acknowledge under an eased set of criteria.
The latest ruling represents the first high court recognition of liver function disease as atomic bomb-related.
The court dismissed appeals from both the plaintiffs and defendants to an October 2008 Chiba District Court ruling on a suit filed by four residents of Chiba Prefecture who were exposed to radiation in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The high court agreed with the lower court in dismissing recognition of the remaining two plaintiffs, who have already been recognized under the new criteria.
The high court turned down the four plaintiffs' demand of state compensation of ¥3 million each.