Leprosy Policies
The Leprosy Prevention laws of 1907, 1931 and 1953, the last one only repealed in 1996, permitted the segregation of patients in sanitaria where forced abortions and sterilization were common, even if the laws did not refer to it, and authorized punishment of patients "disturbing peace" as most Japanese leprologists believed that vulnerability to the disease was inheritable.
There were a few Japanese leprologists such as Noburo Ogasawara who argued against the "isolation-sterilization policy" but he was denounced as a traitor to the nation at 15th Conference of the Japanese Association of Leprology in 1941. Under the colonial Korean Leprosy prevention ordinance, Korean patients were also subjected to hard labor.
In postwar Japan, the Eugenic Protection Law (:優生保護法, Yusei Hogo Hō?) was enacted in 1948 to replace the National Eugenic Law of 1940. The indications of the Eugenic Protection Law included leprosy. This condition discontinued when the law changed into Women's Body Protection Law.
Read more about this topic: Eugenics In Japan
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