The Kumamoto District Court on Friday ordered the state to pay about ¥370 million in damages to family members of former leprosy patients — the first ruling awarding compensation to patients' relatives for having suffered discrimination as a result of the disease.
The court ruled in favor of 561 family members of former leprosy patients across the country who said they faced discrimination due to the stigma of their relatives having being isolated in sanitariums under the government's decadeslong segregation policy.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is now curable.