Junior high and high school students held an online symposium to learn about the history of leprosy, in which patients and their families suffered discrimination and prejudice due to the country's wrong policies.
The government forcibly quarantined patients with Hansen's disease in sanatoriums from 1890, and continued the quarantine policy until 1996 even after it was found that the infectivity was extremely weak.
On the 27th, a symposium on the theme of Hansen's disease was held online, and about 30 people including junior and senior high school students from Tokyo and Hiroshima and former patients participated.
The students shared stories they had heard from ex-patients, including experiences where they were forced to change their names when they were isolated in a sanatorium and were not even allowed to have children.
He also explained that he was sometimes refused accommodation and was not able to rent a house even after he was cured, and complained that patients with the new coronavirus are now suffering from discrimination and prejudice as well.
Natsume Iguchi, a second-year high school student in Tokyo, said, "I want to change from the familiar place where discrimination is occurring due to the new coronavirus so that human rights issues will not be weathered."
In addition, Suiko Shibata (84), a former patient with Hansen's disease who participated, said, "As the number of people who have experienced discrimination decreases, I hope young people will be interested and leave it as a lesson in the future."