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Japan apologises to victims of forced sterilisation

April 27, 2019 | Expert Insights

Twenty years after Japan repealed the eugenics law, it has agreed to compensate victims of the government program under which thousands of people were forcibly sterilized because of intellectual disabilities, mental illness or genetic disorders. Why is Abe apologizing now?

Background 

Eugenics aims to improve the genetic quality of a human population by excluding certain genetic groups judged to be inferior and promoting superior groups.  The eugenics movement began in the United States in the early part of the 20th century and became associated with Nazi Germany. In the decades following World War II, with the institution of human rights, many countries gradually began to abandon eugenics policies, although some Western countries, the United States, Canada, and Sweden among them, continued to carry out forced sterilizations.

The National Diet embarked on a series of efforts mirroring the legislation of pre-war Imperial Japan, that is,  to remove “malignant genetic elements” from the rapidly booming Japanese population. The culmination of these efforts was the Eugenic Protection Law, which was passed unanimously in both chambers of the Diet in 1948. It sought to prevent people with physical and cognitive disabilities from being able to have children, as well as those with mental illnesses. People with certain diseases were also sterilised - such as those with leprosy, a now-curable condition known as Hansen's disease. The law was abolished in 1996 and renamed as Maternity Protection Law. 



Analysis

Japan’s government has issued an apology and awarded compensation to thousands of people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilized under a now-defunct eugenics law. The parliament’s upper house passed that the surviving victims will each receive ¥3.2m (£22,000) as compensation for their suffering, as well as an apology from the state “for the great physical and mental suffering caused by the forced sterilization programme." 

Prime minister, Shinzō Abe, voiced “sincere regret” and said the government “apologised wholeheartedly” for the policy, under which people as young as nine were sterilized against their will. He said “As the government that carried out this law, after deep reflection, I would like to apologise from the bottom of my heart... We will do all we can to achieve a society where no one is discriminated against, whether they have illnesses or disabilities, and live together while respecting each other’s personality and individuality.”

Sterilization peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, with the last surgery under the law being carried out in 1993. The doctors did not convey to the patients that sterilization is permanent and irreversible. They also failed to provide alternative information about methods of contraception. Most of the involuntary sterilizations were performed on inmates of psychiatric hospitals and institutions for intellectually disabled people. It rounded up thousands of leprosy patients and forced them to live in sanatoriums located in the mountains or on remote islands. 

Most countries have reformed their forced sterilization policies, but many continue to impose the practice on marginalized groups. Moreover, so-called voluntary sterilizations are often coercive (or forced) by the use of incentives such as food, money, or housing. In order to address the practice directly, several UN agencies — OHCR, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO — issued a joint statement deriding forced sterilizations and calling for countries to end any legal protections. International and national NGOs continually work towards exposing forced sterilization history in the regions they operate in, by identifying the victims, ensuring the practice is banned, and fighting for compensation. Germany and Sweden had similar measures, but have since apologised to victims and provided compensation.  The plaintiffs’ lawyers claimed that the one-off compensation offered by the government was insufficient. “It is understandable that lawmakers have been hurrying to enact the law to pay one-off compensation to ageing victims,” they said in a statement.

Counterpoint

Keiko Toshimitsu, a bioethics researcher and head of an activist group supporting those who were forcibly sterilized said ‘Right after the war, rebuilding the country and its people was paramount, so in the name of building better citizens for the nation, the law came into effect.” He also said that “It was to build a better Japan - along, of course, with prejudice against the disabled."

Supporters of human enhancement through genetic and other reproductive technologies claim that the new liberal eugenics, based on science and individual consent differs from the old eugenics which was unscientific and coercive. Supporters claim that it is a parent's moral obligation to produce the best children possible.

Assessment

Our assessment is that eugenics is a violation of medical ethics and the morals of society. We feel that the concept of eugenics is adopted in genetic engineering, i.e. the practice of eliminating "undesirable traits" within humans and its ethics. We believe that genetic engineering is a remarkably advanced area of study for legal and medical practitioners to frame ethically acceptable guidelines. We feel that the apology from the Japanese government comes at a time when the country is preparing for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.