Fearing Fertility

Survivors of Japan’s eugenic sterilisation programmes made both national and international headlines in 2018 with the first round of lawsuits against the government, seeking rightful compensation for human rights abuses.3 In total, 39 plaintiffs filed such lawsuits in 2018 and the years following, with the initial round of damages awarded in 2022.4 The English-language reporting on these cases shocked the Anglosphere, as it represented the first time many readers had even heard of historic eugenic sterilisation mandates in East Asia.