The Nagoya District Court on Wednesday ordered that two men who were exposed to the August 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima should be officially recognized as hibakusha, overturning the government's rejection of their certification bid despite standards eased in recent years.

The court, however, dismissed similar claims made by two women in the same case who were present during the nuclear attack on Nagasaki, while acknowledging a causal relationship between the diseases suffered by all four plaintiffs and their exposure to radiation.

Presiding Judge Yoshitaka Ichihara said in the ruling that while the men needed surgery or repeated hospital visits for medical treatment when they applied for certification, the women faced a lower probability of needing such help as their conditions had not deteriorated in the extended time since last undergoing surgical procedures.