Government must accept court judgment and make efforts toward total settlement of leprosy problems

The government was apparently reluctant to accept its responsibility for the policy of isolating leprosy (Hansen's Disease) patients, even after the court ruled that it was unconstitutional. It was reported that the government was considering appealing to a higher court to achieve an out-of-court settlement.

Speaking in a Japanese Communist Party public assembly in Maebashi City in Gunma Prefecture on May 20, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo said, "Such a way of evading responsibility must not be condoned. The government must accept the court judgment and immediately start making efforts to solve all the problems."

In the same assembly, Kodama Yuji, JCP member and acting head of the leprosy lawsuit plaintiffs group, said that ex-patients are recovering their human dignity following the court ruling in their favor. He criticized the government for doing nothing in remorse for their acts of human rights violations, and called on the audience to help to get the district court judgment established as the final decision.

In the Diet, the four opposition parties (the Japanese Communist Party, theDemocratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, and the Liberal Party) have called for a Diet resolution to be adopted to state that the Diet accepts the court judgment and apologizes to the victims.

The plaintiffs group held a sit-in in front of the Prime Minister's Official Residence from May 21 to 25.

In Okayama Prefecture, the plaintiffs who filed a similar lawsuit in the Okayama District Court and their lawyers and supporters marched in demonstration on May 19, demanding that the government give up the idea of appealing to a higher court. They crossed the bridge between Nagashima Island on the Inland Sea (where patients were incarcerated in two isolation centers) and Japan's Main Island.

The bridge was constructed in 1988 as a result of the 17-year movement of the patients in the centers who wanted to free themselves from isolation. When there was no bridge, many patients who tried to run away from the centers died, swallowed up by the strong tides. (end)