A Japanese court on Tuesday ordered the state to compensate three people with disabilities over forced sterilization under the now-defunct eugenics protection law, awarding damages for the first time among similar suits filed with nine courts and their branches across Japan.
The Osaka High Court told the central government to pay a total of ¥27.5 million ($239,660) in damages to the three in western Japan — a couple and a woman in their 70s and 80s — and recognized the eugenics law as unconstitutional.
The couple is hearing-impaired and the wife underwent forced sterilization in 1974, while the other woman, who has intellectual disabilities, did so in around 1965.