The Osaka High Court has recommended that the parties involved in a lawsuit over hepatitis C virus infections caused by the use of tainted blood products compromise and reach a settlement. It is hoped that the state and drug makers will be ready to take responsibility for the medical disaster and apologize to the plaintiffs so that a court-mediated settlement can be reached. The settlement would serve as a first step toward solving health problems that affect more than 10,000 people.

In and after 2002, a total of 171 people infected with hepatitis C virus through the use of tainted blood products, mainly the hemostatic agent fibrinogen, filed lawsuits for compensation with lower courts in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sendai and Nagoya. By September 2007, four of the five courts ruled that both the state and drug makers bear responsibility for the health damage. Only the Sendai court decided that the drug makers alone have responsibility.

In 1977, the United States withdrew approval of fibrinogen. Yet, use of nonheated fibrinogen was found to have led to mass hepatitis infections in Aomori Prefecture in 1987. The next year, heated fibrinogen caused a series of infections. Although the health ministry in 2004 made public the names of about 7,000 medical institutions that had purchased fibrinogen, it did not bother to find out how many people were infected with hepatitis C virus.