Overview
- The Hiroshima District Court on Jan. 28 ordered the government to pay ¥3.3 million to 23 relatives of three hibakusha who returned to South Korea after the 1945 bombing.
- The court rejected the state’s statute of limitations defense as an abuse of rights, with Presiding Judge Atsushi Yamaguchi saying the bid to drop the claims was not acceptable.
- The plaintiffs sought compensation for the long denial of health allowances, citing years of health problems and anxiety experienced by the survivors.
- The dispute traces back to a 1974 Health and Welfare Ministry directive that cut off benefits to survivors living abroad, a policy scrapped in 2003 and deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in 2007.
- The court noted the government’s stance up to the 2007 ruling cast doubt on the right to seek compensation, making it unreasonable to find the claims time-barred.