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August 13, 2026
 

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LEPROSY

Health minister Kenichiro Ueno lays flowers during a ceremony held in Tokyo Monday to restore the honor of leprosy patients in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 22, 2026
Japan commemorates victims of discriminatory leprosy policy
A ceremony was held in Tokyo to restore the honor of leprosy patients in Japan, who had suffered severe discrimination based on a policy of forced isolation.
Defense lawyers of a 1952 murder case seeking a retrial hold signs reading "unjust decision" on Wednesday in the city of Kumamoto.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2026
Court rejects retrial request for executed man believed to have had leprosy
It was a rare case in which a retrial was sought for a defendant who had already been executed.
Artist Nikita Kadan and dancer Min Tanaka modeled their art and choreography respectively on prosthetic limbs as commentary on the island¡¯s history of being a center for isolating people with Hansen¡¯s disease.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2025
Healing Oshima Island¡¯s history of disease with a touch of art
Min Tanaka opened the Setouchi Triennale¡¯s summer session on Oshima, Kagawa Prefecture, with a site-specific dance at Nikita Kadan¡¯s sculpture, an allegory for support.
Masaru Sato says the ossuary at Matsuoka Hoyoen must be preserved even after residents are gone from the sanatorium.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jul 7, 2025
Former Hansen¡¯s disease patients shed light on history of discrimination
Although the prejudice against Hansen¡¯s disease patients brought on by past segregation policy persist, the memories of their hardships are now fading.
Lawyers representing families of former leprosy patients seeking damages from the state hold up signs in front of the Kumamoto District Court in June 2019 after winning the case.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 5, 2024
35% in Japan prejudiced against ex-leprosy patients: survey
The health ministry will consider necessary measures given the survey results.
Koichi Kondo plays the harmonica. Playing harmonica was like life itself for members of the Bluebird Band, according to his words.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 4, 2024
Harmonica melodies of Hansen¡¯s disease patients live on
A band featuring the instrument was founded in 1953, at a time when prejudice against the disease was still strong
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jun 5, 2023
Bridge marks 35 years connecting island isolated under past leprosy policy
The Oku-Nagashima Bridge in Okayama Prefecture has become a symbol of acknowledgement that the segregation policy, under which patients suffered for decades from discrimination, was wrong.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2022
Human rights violations confirmed at leprosy sanatorium
According to the report, 1,674 residents died in the facility between 1938 and 1998, and autopsies were performed on 1,184 of them, about 70% of the total.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
May 18, 2020
Can Â鶹´«Ã½ laws adapt to pandemic-era privacy needs?
Identity-based discrimination is a part of Japanese law, but could our own experiences with the new coronavirus become part of our identity?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 14, 2020
Hansen¡¯s discrimination proving tough to stamp out despite legislation
Last year, the government enacted legislation to compensate families of former Hansen¡¯s disease patients for the suffering they endured as relatives of a group that was the target of discrimination in the 20th century. Former patients themselves were compensated by the government in 2001 and, later,...
JAPAN / Society
Nov 27, 2019
Â鶹´«Ã½ government urged to do more to fight discrimination over leprosy
During a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday, relatives of former leprosy patients called on the government to continue efforts to combat discrimination following the recent enactment of a law for compensation.
EDITORIALS
Nov 4, 2019
Relief on the way for kin of Hansen¡¯s disease patients
Only when a correct understanding of the disease has been established through various efforts will the dignity and human rights of the former Hansen¡¯s disease patients and their relatives be fully restored.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2019
Japanese lawmakers agree on payments to kin of former leprosy patients
A nonpartisan group of lawmakers reached a broad agreement on Wednesday to offer family members of former leprosy patients up to ?1.8 million in compensation per person.
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2019
The damage done to kin of Hansen¡¯s disease patients
The government needs to listen to what patients¡¯ relatives have gone through and explore what can be done to make up for the damage done.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2016
Supreme Court¡¯s probe falls short
The top court¡¯s probe into ¡®special trials¡¯ held for leprosy patients accused of criminal offenses failed to address whether the defendants recieved justice.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2016
Supreme Court apologizes for discriminatory treatment of Â鶹´«Ã½ leprosy patients
The Supreme Court apologizes to former leprosy patients for allowing lower courts to hold criminal trials involving them outside standard courtrooms over ungrounded fears about the spread of infection.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2016
Special trials for Hansen¡¯s patients
Rather than merely offer an apology to former Hansen¡¯s disease patients for their closed trials, the Supreme Court should look into whether they received fair trials.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2015
Decorated U.S. sailor turned missionary, who served at Okinawa leprosy facility, dies at 88
The Rev. Charles Brozat, an American missionary whose 54-year service in Japan included a decade ministering to leprosy sufferers in Okinawa, has died at the age of 88.
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Severe tropical storm Chan-hom makes landfall near Tokyo
Severe Tropical Storm Chan-hom made landfall around Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo, on Tuesday night.
What Â鶹´«Ã½ language rules for permanent residency should look like
Potential health care workers hoping to find work in Japan take Japanese language instruction in Jakarta. Not all applicants for permanent residency should be expected to reach this level of proficiency.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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