Japan’s health minister announced Jan. 20 that the government is launching an investigation into reports that a Japanese social service agency has been recommending sterilization to disabled people for years.
According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, at least eight couples have undergone sterilization at the behest of Asunaro Social Welfare Service Corp., which runs a group care facility on the island of Hokkaido for people with intellectual disabilities.
Local authorities uncovered this week that the social welfare corporation had been recommending that couples living on its premises who hoped to live together or marry get sterilized by way of therapies such as vasectomies for men and birth control rings for women.
The corporation had been doing so for over two decades, the authorities found; the corporation has insisted that it only recommended the sterilizations and never forced them on any of the residents.
Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s minister of health, labor, and welfare, issued a notice last week asking local authorities to immediately notify the ministry if they learn of an organization making sterilization a condition for people with disabilities to use its services. The notice was made public Jan. 23.
Kato also announced that his ministry is planning to conduct research, starting in fiscal year 2023, into the marriages, pregnancies, childbirths, and child-rearing of people with disabilities to understand their realities better, Asahi Shimbun reported.
“It is extremely important to implement appropriate support based on the wishes of persons with disabilities, including marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing,” Kato said.
According to UCA News, a Catholic news site focusing on Asia, Japan’s care homes for disabled people do not have provisions for child care and are designed for couples only, and do not address the needs of people under 18 years old.
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