A/HRC/44/46/Add.1 Annex Report of the Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members on her visit to Japan I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, Alice Cruz, undertook an official visit to Japan from 12 to 19 February 2020. The purpose of the visit was twofold: to develop an in-depth understanding of the historical process that framed the current legal and institutional responses to leprosy, known as Hansen’s disease in Japan, and to examine the current situation of the enjoyment of human rights by persons affected by Hansen’s disease and their family members in terms of progress and remaining challenges. 2. During her mission, the Special Rapporteur met with several representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. She also met with the Japanese Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of Persons Affected by Leprosy and World Health Organization (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, alongside other representatives of the Nippon Foundation and the Sasakawa Health Foundation. She visited the National Hansen’s Disease Museum in Tokyo and had several meetings with its director, Nao Hoshino, and the team of curators, and met with curators from different sanatoriums and with the head of the association of the directors of the 13 functioning sanatoriums in the country. She met with the director and staff of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and consulted scholars conducting outstanding work on Hansen’s disease at the University of Tokyo and experts who have been collaborating with persons affected by the disease. She visited the Centre for Human Rights Education and Training, where she met with the Centre’s president, Shigeki Sakamoto, who drafted the principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members. She talked to plaintiffs of the 2001 and 2019 lawsuits (see sect. IV below), both persons affected by Hansen’s disease and their family members, their lawyers, victims of the eugenics protection law, persons affected by Hansen’s disease and their family members living in general society and others living in various communities. She visited the National Sanatorium Tama Zenshōen in the Tokyo area and Nagashima-aiseien and Oku-komyoen Sanatouriums in Okayama Prefecture, where she met with staff and representatives of the residents’ committees and of the National Hansen’s Disease Sanatorium Residents’ Association, Zen Ryo Kyo. 3. The Special Rapporteur expresses her appreciation to the Government for the support it provided and thanks the staff of the public and private institutions and the civil society organizations and the individuals who provided substantive inputs and assistance in the coordination of the visit. She also wishes to pay tribute to persons affected by Hansen’s disease, their families and the organizations representing them. II. Hansen’s disease in Japan 4. From an epidemiological point of view, Hansen’s disease is now a rare and imported disease in Japan. According to the Government, in 2018, there were 2 new foreign-born and no new Japanese cases, and between 2014 and 2018, there were 16 new foreign-born cases. WHO reported 2 new foreign-born cases in 2018. 1 According to private medical practitioners, there were 5 new foreign-born cases in 2019 and around 27 new foreign-born cases between 2012 and 2019. According to the same sources, between 2000 and 2018, 1 2 WHO, “Global leprosy update 2018: moving towards a leprosy-free world”, Weekly Epidemiological Record, vol. 94, Nos. 35/36 (30 August 2019).