News

by Koji Higuchi, Staff Writer

At a press conference held on November 26, Japan’s Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shigeyuki Goto revealed the national government’s aim of starting a system in April next year to provide recognition as A-bomb survivors to black rain victims other than the plaintiffs victorious in the court case over radioactive “black rain” that fell in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. “We hope to initiate the program at the beginning of fiscal 2022,” announced Mr. Goto. To prepare for designing the system, Mr. Goto explained that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare would hold a first meeting with the Hiroshima Prefectural and City governments on November 30. “Because the affected individuals are now elderly, we want to respond with a sense of urgency,” he emphasized.

In a move toward development of the new system, Mr. Goto indicated that the Nagasaki Prefectural and City governments would also be invited to discussions for revising the current guidelines used to recognize A-bomb survivors. He expressed reservations, however, about providing relief to victims of radioactive fallout in Nagasaki Prefecture for the time being. He explained that the two local governments would be included in the guidelines revision discussions because they were previously involved in the development of the current guidelines. Mr. Goto added, “We are not thinking about handling the issue of black rain in Hiroshima and in Nagasaki Prefecture together.”

On November 25, when he met with Hiroshima Prefectural Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki, Mr. Goto communicated to Mr. Yuzaki about the national government’s plan to put into practice the new system for A-bomb survivor recognition starting in fiscal 2022. At the press conference on November 26, he took things one step further and clarified the timing of the start of the program to be the beginning of next fiscal year, stressing the need for the Japanese government to first secure an adequate budget for the measure. He expressed his intent for expenses related to the new system to be included in the national government’s fiscal 2022 budget proposal.

Regarding this past July’s black rain court case, the government accepted the ruling by the Hiroshima High Court, which recognized all 84 plaintiffs as being A-bomb survivors, and the Cabinet adopted the official statement made by then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. “The government will deliberate promptly on our response going forward to ensure that black rain victims are recognized as being A-bomb survivors—regardless of whether or not they participated in the lawsuit—and receive relief,” was some of the language included in the statement. Since that time, submissions of applications for issuance of Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Certificates from citizens in Hiroshima Prefecture to the Hiroshima Prefectural and City governments have increased sharply, exceeding 1,100 cases in total.

(Originally published on November 27, 2021)