Thousands of men and women in Japan who were forcibly sterilised are to receive compensation from the government, decades after they became victims of a eugenics law designed to prevent the birth of so-called inferior children. In April, MPs passed a bill that will compensate 25,000 people who were sterilised from 1948 until the law was abolished in 1996. They include 16,500 people who were operated on against their will.
The victims' legal battle made the headlines last year when a woman who is now in her 60s filed a damages suit against the state. Courts across the country are now considering similar claims. Our correspondents report from Sendai and Tokyo.
A programme prepared by Patrick Lovett, Rebecca Martin and Malcolm Surer.
