[Learning from the history of leprosy--looking back at one hundred years of medicine at the leprosaria].

Abstract

This year is the centennial anniversary of the five national leprosaria in Japan. It means that the official accommodation of leprosy patients who were wandering on the streets started in 1909. At that time, the existence of these leprosy patients on the streets was considered as a national shame and also an evidence of falling behind the Western cultured countries. Japanese people and the government were hypersensitive of such notoriety, especially from the Western countries. Some doctors, politicians and bureaucrats were really concerned about the situation and made great efforts to establish the leprosy separation law. It was implemented in 1907, but it took two more years for the preparation of the sanatoria for accommodation. The leprosy separation law has persisted until 1996. It has been revised to the leprosy segregation law in 1931, and to the leprosy isolation law in 1953. Although the law underwent two revisions, the main ideology of isolation has been abundant for almost ninety years. This law has been infamous for its misery and pointed out to be abolished by the WHO. This paper will focus attention on the doctors, politicians and bureaucrats who have worked for the institution of this cruel law, and also discuss the reason why this law had prevailed.