Hepatitis B sufferers suing the government decided Saturday to accept a court-proposed settlement plan on condition the state apologizes and offers them blanket compensation, they said.

The move will help end a series of damages suits filed nationwide by hepatitis B patients and virus carriers believed infected by repeated use of needles during group vaccinations decades ago, as the government has already expressed its willingness to accept a proposal by the Sapporo District Court that it pay compensation.

“It was a tough decision, but we decided to accept the proposal to swiftly end this issue,” the plaintiffs said in a statement issued after meeting in Tokyo.

The government is considering enacting a special law to offer compensation to all the sufferers, including those not involved in the lawsuits. the group is estimated to number as many as 440,000 nationwide.

It remains unclear, however, how the government can secure the estimated ¥3.2 trillion needed to provide relief over the next 30 years.

“We have no plans yet at this moment” on how to cover the compensation package, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, where he was visiting. “We are in the final stage of discussions.”

Earlier this month, the Sapporo District Court proposed that the government pay ¥12.5 million to ¥36 million in damages to hepatitis B patients depending on their condition, as well as ¥500,000 each in compensation plus expenses for health checkups and transportation to asymptomatic carriers who have not developed any symptoms.

The vaccination law was put into effect in 1948 with the aim of preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as diphtheria and tuberculosis, and mass vaccinations began for children at schools. Needles are believed to have been used repeatedly until around the 1980s.

In June 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of five plaintiffs infected with hepatitis B who had filed a damages suit against the state in 1989, recognizing they contracted the virus through mass vaccinations.

Since the state failed to work out any broad, specific relief measures for hepatitis B sufferers, however, a total of 630 people since March 2008 filed suits with 10 district courts across Japan.

TOKYO – Japanese Hepatitis B sufferers thought to have caught the disease from repeated use of needles during a vaccination programme have agreed to settle a dispute with the state, at the cost of US$39 billion (S$50 billion).

The decision will bring to an end a series of lawsuits across the country but it will pose the government with a headache as it looks for ways to raise the 3.2 trillion yen (S$50 billion), with the possibility it may have to to raise taxes.

Tokyo had already expressed a readiness to accept the proposal, bringing to an end the country’s largest medical dispute that will see it compensate about 430,000 people infected with the potentially fatal disease during decades ago.

“This is a tough decision, but we decided to accept (the proposal) to end this issue swiftly,” the plaintiffs said in a statement issued Saturday.

“We demand that the government learn from this lessen and do the best to solve this problem as soon as possible,” said one of the plaintiffs, Mieko Taniguchi, adding that the court proposal was not enough to rescue everyone.

Earlier this month, the Sapporo District Court proposed that the government pay 12.5-36 million yen in damages to each hepatitis B patient depending on their health condition.

The court has also proposed that the government pay 500,000 yen each to virus carriers who do not show any symptoms yet.

Total 630 people have filed damages suits with 10 district courts across Japan, arguing that the government should be held responsible for the mass infections as it failed to take necessary measures.

The Sapporo District Court, one of 10 district courts across Japan handling lawsuits filed by hepatitis B sufferers and bereaved families seeking state compensation, on Jan. 11 made a proposal aimed at reconciling the two sides. on Jan. 22, an association of the plaintiffs throughout the country decided to accept the Sapporo court’s proposal, under which the state would provide compensation and relief measures covering all hepatitis B sufferers. Earlier the state also decided to accept the proposal. it is hoped that the court-mediated settlement negotiations will reach a successful conclusion at an early date.

According to the health and welfare ministry, 1.1 million to 1.4 million people are infected with the hepatitis B virus, with 90 percent of them not yet having developed symptoms. Up to 440,000 carriers are believed to have been infected through shared needles during mass vaccinations. only in January 1988 did the ministry issue instructions mandating a one-use policy for needles. Some carriers have developed diseases such as liver cancer, cirrhosis and hepatitis.

In June 2006, in a lawsuit filed by five people, the Supreme Court ruled that the state was responsible for causing infections because of its failure to order local governments to take preventive steps such as not reusing needles. it ordered the state to pay ¥5.5 million in compensation per plaintiff.

The ruling gave rise to expectations that it would prompt the government to work out wider relief measures. but the government did not take specific actions. This led many people to file lawsuits in and after March 2008. The number of plaintiffs has grown to 621.

After the Sapporo and Fukuoka district courts in March 2010 called on both sides to settle the cases through negotiations the government offered to start compensation talks with plaintiffs in May that year.

During the talks, differences on the terms of compensation emerged between the government and the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs called on the government to pay ¥20 million to ¥40 million in compensation to each hepatitis B sufferer. but the government offered to pay ¥25 million in compensation for dead patients and sufferers of liver cancer or serious cirrhosis, ¥10 million to sufferers of a mild case of cirrhosis and ¥5 million for sufferers of chronic hepatitis.

The two sides differed on important points. The government took the position that carriers who have not developed symptoms have no right to claim compensation because the statutory limit of 20 years had passed since the vaccinations took place. it said that although it was ready to offer allowances to them for regular checkups, they should be regarded as measures based on policy discretion, not as compensation. it also took the position that relief measures should not be extended to those who cannot prove that they received vaccinations through official documents such as mother/child health handbooks and vaccination records at local governments.

The Sapporo District Court tried to overcome these difficult points by proposing that carriers without symptoms who cannot prove their vaccination through official documents should be eligible for relief measures if written statements by them, doctors and other relevant parties are judged by the court as truthful. it also proposed that the government pay ¥500,000 to each carrier without symptoms as “reconciliation money” as well as shoulder the cost for future regular checkups and up to ¥30,000 annually as transportation fees. to make it easier for the government to accept the proposal, the court said that the reconciliation money of ¥500,000 should be regarded as covering the cost for past regular checkups.

The court also raised the amount of compensation that had been offered by the government. Deceased patients and sufferers of liver cancer or serious cirrhosis would receive ¥36 million, sufferers of a mild case of cirrhosis ¥25 million and sufferers of chronic hepatitis ¥12.5 million.

Cabinet members concerned, including health and welfare minister Ritsuo Hosokawa and then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, on Jan. 12 decided to fundamentally accept the Sapporo District Court’s proposal. The government later endorsed their decision. The plaintiffs and their lawyers said in their Jan. 11 statement that although the proposed relief measures for carriers with no symptoms are insufficient, they deserve a certain degree of appreciation.

The government should fully consider the hardships that hepatitis B sufferers have had to endure and hold future talks with the plaintiffs with sincerity so that both sides can work out mutually acceptable details of the settlement in a timely manner. it should also consider how to raise necessary funds needed for the compensation and relief measures, which are estimated to total ¥3 trillion.

SAPPORO (Kyodo) the Sapporo District Court urged the government Tuesday to pay ¥500,000 in settlement to each asymptomatic hepatitis B virus carrier as it issued the first judicial view in a series of lawsuits filed nationwide by patients and carriers believed infected during group vaccinations.

While presenting its view on the most controversial point of whether to cover asymptomatic carriers in the settlement package, the court also called on the state to pay from ¥12.5 million to ¥36 million to those who have developed hepatitis B, depending on their condition, their lawyers said.

The government has denied carriers who do not show symptoms of the disease the right to claim compensation on grounds that the right’s statutory life of 20 years has passed, and instead proposed offering subsidies for their medical checkups.

Against this backdrop, what judicial judgment the district court would make on the carriers had been the main focus of the settlement negotiations between the state and five plaintiffs from Hokkaido that began last may prior to other courts with similar suits by victims of the vaccinations in which needles were believed repeatedly used.

The court-proposed settlement amounts for patients were also larger than the government’s earlier offer to pay ¥5 million to ¥25 million each, but are short of demands by the plaintiffs for up to ¥40 million.

Aside from settlement and subsidies for checkups, the court urged the state to pay them up to ¥30,000 a year each as transportation and other expenses necessary for undergoing health checks.

In reference to the court view, the lawyers said in a statement it deserves “a certain degree of recognition.”

Hepatitis B can be transmitted through blood and weakens the liver. Roughly 10 to 15 percent of carriers are believed to develop serious symptoms such as chronic liver inflammation, cirrhosis or liver cancer.

According to estimates by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, a total of 1.1 million to 1.4 million people carry hepatitis B and 90 percent of them remain asymptomatic, including up to 440,000 carriers infected by vaccinations and possbily subject to redress.