Japanese woman forcibly sterilised as teenager suing government for breach of human rights

About 25,000 people underwent surgery in five-decade eugenics programme

The woman is seeking compensation of 11 million yen (£71,000)

A Japanese woman who was forcibly sterilised when she was 15 is suing the government for breach of human rights in the first case of its kind.

The woman, now in her 60s, was one of about 25,000 people sterilised because of mental or genetic illnesses under Japan's eugenics law between 1948 and 1996.

She developed problems following surgery on a cleft palate as a child and was diagnosed with a "hereditary feeble-mindedness" when she was a teenager in 1972.

After being forcibly sterilised, she developed complications which led to the removal of her ovaries. Her plans to marry later broke down as a result of her infertility.

“Thanks to the law, my sister has really suffered, living her life hidden away,” the woman’s sister told a press conference.

She added: “We wanted to stand up and build a society where even people with disabilities can have a happy life.”

The woman is seeking compensation of 11 million yen (£71,000). She says the government should have set up relief measures for those subjected to the surgery.

No further details, including the woman's name, have been given.

About 16,500 of those sterilised are believed to have had the surgery without consenting. They include leprosy sufferers and people with mental and cognitive disabilities.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters he did not know the details of the case but his ministry would investigate.

People with disabilities have long suffered stigma in Japan, although anti-discrimination campaigns have gathered pace since equality laws took effect in 2016.

That July, however, Japan was forced to confront its attitudes after a man went on a stabbing spree at a facility for disabled people near Tokyo, killing 19 as they slept and wounding 26. He had previously threatened to “obliterate” disabled people.

Almost nothing about the victims was disclosed except for gender and age, mainly at the request of their families.

The governments of Germany and Sweden, which ran similar sterilisation programmes, have each apologised and paid compensation to victims.