Japan to Compensate Victims of Leprosy

Japan will compensate former leprosy sufferers in South Korea who were forced into isolation during Tokyo's colonial rule, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The Japanese government will pay $69,000 each to 64 people forced to live in a sanatorium on a small island, bringing to 155 the number of South Korean beneficiaries of such compensation, the ministry said.

Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry confirmed the number, adding that 282 South Korean victims were yet to receive compensation.

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945, and Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.

In February, Japan enacted a law clearing the way to grant compensation to sufferers of leprosy forced into segregation.

A leprosy compensation law was enacted in 2001 after a landmark ruling that Japan's segregation of people with leprosy was unconstitutional. The law entitles people forced into leprosariums to compensation, regardless of nationality.

But in 2004, the government rejected compensation claims from leprosy patients who were isolated in colonies in South Korea and Taiwan because the law did not cover people in overseas camps.

Last year, the Tokyo District Court handed down contradictory rulings on overseas claims, granting compensation to Taiwanese victims but rejecting similar demands from South Koreans.