Kazuyuki Tamura (right) beams at a media conference in Hiroshima on Feb. 8.

Overturning a lower court ruling, the high court ordered the prefecture to pay Shoji Mukai, 78, and the two other plaintiffs a total of ¥2.9 million -- the amount they had sought.

Presiding Judge Yoshiro Kusano said it was "not tolerable" that the prefecture refused to pay the benefits retroactively after the five-year statute of limitations took effect, on grounds that a local government law allowed it to do so.

"It was extremely epoch-making that a court did not recognize this kind of statute of limitations," said Kazuyuki Tamura, who heads a group of supporters of Japanese hibakusha living in Brazil and the United States. "(The ruling) is tantamount to condemning the Japanese government."

In March 2003, the government abolished the rule that hibakusha living outside Japan were not entitled to receive the allowances and began paying health-care benefits to designated overseas atomic bomb survivors.

But Hiroshima refused to pay the three survivors in Brazil ¥2.9 million in benefits, citing the statute of limitations, which prompted them to file lawsuits in July and December 2002.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 18, 2006
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