EDITORIAL: Discrimination in any form not acceptable in the modern age

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 9 decided not to appeal a June 28 ruling by the Kumamoto District Court that ordered the government to pay damages to the kin of former Hansen's disease patients.

Because the ruling included the court's interpretation of the statute of limitations according to case law, there were strident calls for an appeal within government circles.

Abe, however, chose to abide by the court order, noting, "Considering the unspeakable hardships experienced by the families, I cannot let the case drag on any longer."

This is a truly significant decision that opens the way to righting the wrong done to the victims of the government policy that ruined lives and cruelly subjected families of patients forced to live in isolation to discrimination and prejudice.

The plaintiffs are demanding a meeting with the prime minister and an apology. Abe must comply in all sincerity, and move quickly to hasten the restitution process.

Assuming the Kumamoto court's verdict will be finalized, a total of 370 million yen ($3.4 million) in damages will be paid to the 500-plus plaintiffs. Arrangements must also be made to financially compensate families who did not participate in the litigation.

In examining this case, the court focused on common damages suffered by the plaintiffs.

The suffering incurred by a majority of the plaintiffs served as the criterion for sorting individual cases into categories according to the plaintiffs' relationships with the Hansen's disease patients--parents, children, spouses or siblings.

The court then determined a set amount of damages to be awarded additionally to each category.

The formula followed by the court may prove helpful in drawing up a broad compensation system, even though there are still many issues that need to be ironed out with regard to the limits placed on applicable "family" relations as well as the court-determined amounts of damages to be paid. The sums varied from 300,000 yen to 1.3 million yen per plaintiff, excluding lawyers' fees.

Still, we urge the government to proceed, in collaboration with the plaintiffs.

The court's verdict not only challenged the government policy but pointed out that the national policy of segregation of Hansen's disease patients shaped a "social structure" of prejudice toward the families. This led them to be ostracized by society. They also faced discrimination in school enrollment, employment, marriage and other matters.

In 2001, the Koizumi administration decided against appealing a court verdict awarding compensation to former Hansen's disease patients whose constitutional rights, the court deemed, had been violated.

Ever since then, the central as well as local governments have sought to correct the public's misconceptions about the disease and eliminate discrimination against former patients.

But the public's mentality can hardly be said to have really changed. In 2003, a hotel in Kumamoto Prefecture refused to accommodate a former patient. In 2014, an elementary school in Fukuoka Prefecture was found to have misinformed its pupils about the disease, with the result that one pupil wrote in an essay, "I will stay away from any friend who gets this disease."

Even the plaintiffs in the current Kumamoto lawsuit were unable to take any action until they decided in 2016 to seek legal redress from the government. A majority of the plaintiffs remained anonymous. This is something for everyone to think about.

All sorts of discrimination and prejudice exist in our society. The Abe administration's decision not to appeal the court verdict should serve as a cue for the public to renew a vow to rid society of all forms of discrimination.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 10