Japan‘s health ministry acknowledges that around 16,500 people were forcibly sterilized under a eugenics law in place between 1948 and 1996.

The law allowed doctors to sterilize people with heritable intellectual disabilities, to „prevent the generation of poor quality descendants“.

Another 8,500 people were sterilized with their consent, according to authorities, though lawyers say even those cases were likely „de facto forced“ because of the pressure individuals faced.