Japan had an Eugenic Protection Law (EPL) from 1948 to 1996. People with intellectual or mental disabilities, and those with certain hereditary diseases, were sterilised “to prevent birth of inferior descendants from the eugenic point of view, and to protect life and health of mother, as well”.

Of the roughly 25,000 people sterilised under EPL, about 16,500 were made to against their will, and some without their knowledge.

A 1,400-page report submitted to parliament last year, and the first official account of the policy, found up to 8,000 patients who gave their consent were pressured into doing so.

Today the Japanese supreme court ruled that Eugenics laws were unconstitutional and ordered Japanese government to pay compensation to 11 people.

The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (JSPN) in February apologised for the “irreparable harm” it was complicit in causing to the victims of eugenic policies.

“The JSPN, as an academic society responsible for psychiatric care, offers a sincere and unreserved apology to the victims of forced sterilisation for the harm inflicted upon their lives and for the disregard of their human rights,” president Masaru Mimura said.