A Sendai court determined Tuesday that the now-defunct eugenics protection law, which mandated the government stop people with intellectual disabilities from reproducing, was unconstitutional, but it dismissed a damages suit filed by two women who underwent forced sterilization.
In the first ruling handed down in a number of suits filed with seven district courts nationwide, the Sendai District Court rejected the ¥71.5 million ($653,000) damages suit filed by women in their 60s and 70s in Miyagi Prefecture, saying the statute of limitations had expired.
In the trial, the plaintiffs and lawyers said the 1948 eugenics law deprived the victims of self-determination with regard to giving birth and raising children, violating the Constitution, which guarantees the pursuit of happiness and equality under the law.