In January, the Supreme Court ruled that the 2004 Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Act-which requires that transgender people be sterilized to obtain documents reflecting their gender identity-as constitutional. Japan’s rape law requires that prosecutors prove that violence or intimidation was involved, or that the victim was “incapable of resistance.” In one case, a court acquitted a father accused of raping his 19-year-old daughter, although the court recognized that the sex was non-consensual and that he had been physically and sexually abusing the victim since she was younger. Protests erupted across Japan this year after a string of rape cases resulted in acquittals. In November, Japan’s House of Councilors (Upper House) approved a law that will enable compensation for affected families. In July, Prime Minister Abe offered the government’s first official apology to families who had members who lived with leprosy and had suffered under the government’s segregation policy between 19, after the government decided it would not appeal a district court ruling that ordered the state to pay compensation. The court, however, rejected compensation sought by the plaintiff, citing the 20-year statute of limitations. In May, a district court in Sendai ruled that the plaintiff’s constitutional right to pursue happiness, including reproductive rights, had been violated under the now-defunct act. Under the law, approximately 25,000 people were sterilized. In April, the Japanese parliament enacted legislation to compensate people forcibly sterilized under the Eugenic Protection Act between 19. Anti-death penalty advocates have long raised concerns about death row inmates having inadequate access to legal counsel, being notified of their execution only on the day it takes place, and some being executed after their lawyers filed a request for retrial. In August 2019, two more men were also executed for crimes involving murder and robbery. In December 2018, Japan executed two men on death row for crimes including murder and robbery. Japan has no national human rights institutions. It accepts an extremely small number of refugees each year, mostly from Asia. Japan has no law prohibiting racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination, or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Japan’s long overlooked “hostage” justice system, in which criminal suspects are held for long periods in harsh conditions to coerce a confession, received renewed attention after the high-profile arrest of former Renault and Nissan head Carlos Ghosn in November 2018 for alleged financial misconduct. In November, Abe became the longest-serving Japanese prime minister. However, the LDP and its allies failed to maintain a two-thirds majority needed to pursue Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s grand political goal of amending Japan’s post-war pacifist constitution. In July, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a solid majority in an upper house election. Japan is a prosperous liberal democracy with the third largest economy and a vibrant civil society.
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