TOKYO. Few, very few children, too many old people. Japan’s demographic winter It is a plague that also brings the social security system to its knees and that governments in recent years are trying to contain in every way. But it has not always been like this. There were decades of baby booms and in those years thousands of people were sterilized. Today we discover that it was not right to do so.
Japan’s Forced Sterilization Law Was Unconstitutional, Tokyo Supreme Court Rulesclosing a deep wound: 25 thousand people, from 1948 to 1996were forced to undergo the procedure only because they were considered inferior, unfit to have children. It was a systemic selection, especially between the 60s and 70s of the last century based on a law in force in the country from the Baby Boom years until the beginning of 2000 with the High Court that now orders the Tokyo government to compensate for the damages, after having established that the 20-year limitation period is not applicable to cases like this.
The Eugenics Protection Directive was passed in 1948 to “prevent the birth of offspring with genetic defects” and established that the people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses or hereditary disorders could be forcibly sterilized. A way to preserve the health of the population, according to the spirit of the law. But also a way to select the newborns, in a certain sense.
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The case broke out only a few years ago. Since 2018, 39 people, including those who had undergone the surgery, have filed lawsuits in 12 district courts and lower courts across the country.. “It is deeply unfair and unjust to exempt the government from its responsibilities by considering the statute of limitations,” Japan’s highest court said in upholding the plaintiffs’ claims, calling the state’s actions “intolerable and contrary to moral duty,” and in judicial terms “an abuse of power.” All 15 judges unanimously ruled that the eugenics legislation was unconstitutional.specifying that it violates Article 13 of the Constitution – which guarantees the freedom of people not to undergo physically invasive procedures against their will, and Article 14 which establishes the right to equality for every citizen. This is the thirteenth case since World War II in which the Supreme Court in Japan has declared a law unconstitutional.
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In those same decades, neighboring China launched the “one-child policy”always to contain the population. Couples were asked not to have more than one child, precisely to avoid the population exploding, with the fear that production would not be able to satisfy the needs of ever-increasing numbers of people. It was 1979. But even in this case a step back was taken, in the opposite direction: in 2013 the possibility of having three children was opened up.
Now, the Japanese state is taking action. Perhaps because of a different awareness, perhaps also because, precisely, the demographic winter is pressing and creating many difficulties for the entire system. The Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has charged the minister responsible for Children’s Policy, Ayuko Kato, to arrange face-to-face meetings with the complainants. A way to apologize, but also to listen, to give the opportunity to those who felt deprived of a right to have their say, certifying in some way the mistake made in the past. In reality, the figures promised as compensation are not that high. But they are still a victory, a belated one, for those who were unable to have a family and for those who were forced to give up having children.
«The Government sincerely regrets and deeply apologizes with people who, with immense pain, were subjected to sterilization operations,” Kishida told local media. The four high courts ordered the state to pay between 11 million yen (63,000 euros) and 16.5 million yen to each of the victims, and 2.2 million yen to the relatives of those who have already died. The amounts are higher than the one-time compensation of 3.2 million yen decided under a law enacted in April 2019. Of the approximately 25,000 people sterilized, 16,500 did not consent, according to government data. Most of the victims are elderly people, and their lawyers have asked the government to provide them with assistance as soon as possible.
Japan is dealing with today Birth rates at rock bottom and marriage crises. The birth rate is the lowest in the world. According to 2023 data, newborns decreased by 5.1%. And the trend is far from reversing: it is estimated that 42% of Japanese women born in 2005 will never have children. Marriages in 2023 decreased by 5.9%, to 489,281, settling below 500,000 for the first time in 90 years. Since 1974, there has not been a birth rate at replacement level, that is, with numbers that allow for a balance between newborns and deaths. The government is trying to remedy the situation by increasing childcare and raising wages for younger workers. Not even immigrants are able to provide an injection of newborns, who have always been very few in Japan, less than 3% of the workforce. Approximately one third of the population is over 65 years old and the average age is 48, practically the highest in the world for a country.
The problems are also economic. Older workers mean less productive workers with less capacity for innovation. Lower tax revenue, lower savings, higher public spending on health care and to the elderly.
The latest data, presented just a few days ago in Kyoto, by Professor Tomoya Mori, a specialist in Urban Economy: today Japan has 126 million inhabitants, but in a few years it will go down to 35-40. And by 2120 it will lose 280 of its cities, while 90% of its inhabitants will be concentrated in a few large centers, a trend that is already underway.
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