Handing down a ruling in a lawsuit involving 30 plaintiffs who challenged the state's refusal to recognize them as sufferers of illnesses caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Tokyo High Court on May 28 recognized 29 of them as sufferers.
After a March 2007 Tokyo District Court ruling, 20 of them had been recognized by the government as sufferers under the new April 2008 criteria designed to readily recognize people as sufferers of atomic bomb-related illnesses in accordance with a 2000 Supreme Court ruling. The high court ruling means that it recognized as sufferers nine of the 10 plaintiffs whose request for certification had been rejected by the government even under the eased criteria.
About 300 people nationwide filed lawsuits seeking certification at 17 district courts in and after 2003. The latest ruling marks the 18th consecutive ruling favorable to plaintiffs. The government should not appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court and instead work out a measure for wider certification of A-bomb radiation illnesses.