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This paper explores the history of Japanese leprosy control policy which started during its rapid modernization in the late 19th century and continued until 1996. I argue that the responsibility of the medical profession for development of the overall control policy which resulted a mass human rights violation. Japanese leprosy control policy can be interpreted as four powers given to the medical profession: 1) forced isolation, 2) sterilization, 3) forced labor, and 4) arbitrary punishment. Japanese leprologists considered forced isolation necessary, even after sulfone drugs became widely available and the international medical community suggested that forced isolation should be abolished. Male patients who wished to marry had to undergo vasectomy, and pregnant female patients were forced to have abortions. Patients with milder symptoms were assigned heavy labor, which may have exacerbated their condition. Leprosarium directors were empowered to arrest and punish disobedient patients without court order. Records show that 22 of 92 persons imprisoned in Jukambo, a special leprosarium facility for the most severe punishments, died in confinement. In the landmark Kumamoto judgment in 2001, the court ruled that forced isolation was not justifiable after it became medically unnecessary, since at least the 1960s. However, the other three troubling aspects of the control program were left unquestioned, even though those would be much more difficult to justify. Furthermore, the lawsuit was filed against the country, and no individual responsible for the establishment and continuation of the policy was prosecuted. 1. Introduction Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, has been associated with a deep stigma that dates back to ancient history. In many parts of the world, patients were ostracized by their communities and families based on religious or popular beliefs that often described leprosy as a result of sins or wrongdoings. It was described as a divine punishment for immorality in the Old Testament, and hundreds of leprosy patients were considered to be killed because of rumors that some of them poisoned wells and fountains in medieval Europe. 1) In Japan, there was a Buddhism-rooted belief that explained leprosy as an outcome of wrongdoings in the patient's previous lives. Japanese folklore tells of leprosy