“My husband died full of regrets. The government needs to take responsibility for this”. These were the tearful words of Kōno Akiko, whose 59-year-old husband Toshihiro died suddenly just two days after getting the Covid shot in 2021. She found him lying face down in their home. In April 2024, Kōno and thirteen others launched a class action lawsuit against the government for hiding the dangers of the Covid vaccines and for failing to acknowledge or provide relief to vaccine victims.
Their case is slowly making ripples. It was widely reported in Japanese mass media, including even by the government-run broadcaster NHK. Only one year ago, the same network was forced to apologize after misleadingly reporting vaccine deaths as if they were Covid deaths. This is a major shift from two years prior, when the network regularly ran long propaganda specials pushing the vaccines as “necessary,” “safe,” and “effective.”
But Japan’s Covid vaccine victims still face what is likely to be a long uphill battle. Nearly 80% of the Japanese populace received at least two Covid vaccine shots, with many elderly residents even getting boosted up to seven times or more. And Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) continues to advertise the vaccines as “safe and effective” on its website. By acknowledging victims’ claims that the Covid vaccine caused pharmaceutical harm (yakugai), the government would implicitly indict itself for deceptively pushing an unsafe product on the entire Japanese populace and consequently throw its whole Covid policy into question.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) continues to advertise the vaccines as “safe and effective” on its website.
Japan’s Covid vaccine victims also reveal larger problems with the Japanese medical establishment and with the dangers of blindly following “national policy” at all costs. In this regard, their situation can be seen as part of a longer history of health scandals and mass mobilization campaigns. Victims in other words represent an “inconvenient truth”, as they provide tangible evidence that ostensibly benevolent policies may have caused more harm than their designers care to admit.
‘Responsibility hesitant’: Medical and Vaccine Damages in Japan
Many precedents for Japan’s Covid-19 vaccine program can be found in the nation’s history. This is especially true if we consider the program in relation to moments of “mass mobilization” and the medical establishment in general.
During WWII, for instance, the state mobilized both citizens and scientists for its wartime goals. Medicine and health officials cooperated with the military to develop not only chemical and biological weapons but also vaccines, often through the use of gruesome human experiments. Health science was also employed to promote the “health” of the nation, including through the sterilization of mentally and physically handicapped individuals under the 1940 Eugenics Law. After the war, many wartime scientists graduated to high positions in the medical world, while often Japan’s war victims were left without redress.
The experience of mass mobilization was also re-invoked during the country’s long-lasting policy of mandatory vaccines for school children, which lasted until 1994. Meanwhile under the 1948 Eugenics Law, the government continued until 1996 with a policy whereby more than 16,500 people with mental disabilities were forcefully sterilized. The government also forcefully isolated leprosy (Hansen’s disease) patients in sanitariums against their will until as late as 1996.
The experience of mass mobilization was also re-invoked during the country’s long-lasting policy of mandatory vaccines for school children, which lasted until 1994. Meanwhile under the 1948 Eugenics Law, the government continued with a policy whereby more than 16,500 people with mental disabilities were forcefully sterilized.
The negative effects of such policies became apparent during recurrent medical and vaccine-related disasters. The same year the 1948 Immunization Law came into effect, 606 babies were injured and 84 killed during a diptheria vaccination incident. Japan was also rocked by the thalidomide scandal in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the drug thalidomide, sold by the German company Chemie Grünenthal as a “wonder drug” for morning sickness and sleeplessness, was found to have caused more than 10,000 severe birth deformities and potentially at least 90,000 miscarriages.
Yet even such massive scandals couldn’t push the Japanese government to take vaccine injuries seriously. In 1972, the citizens’ group The Association to Prevent Immunization Accidents (APIA), led by Tohoku University professor and radiochemist Yoshihara Kenji alongside parents of children who had been killed or injured by vaccines, criticized the MHLW for not publicly releasing data on vaccine injuries and for being “indifferent” to their victims. The APIA instead conducted its own survey and found an astounding 400 deaths and 661 injuries from vaccines between the years 1960 and 1965 alone.
In 1976, the Japanese government finally introduced the Relief System for Health Damage After Vaccination (“Relief System”) under the Immunization Law. But problems continued, such as large numbers of cases of aseptic meningitis from the MMR vaccine in 1989/90. In 1992, the Tokyo High Court found the government guilty of ignoring or failing to disseminate information on health damages from vaccines. As a result, the government was forced to change its policy from “mandatory” to “recommended” vaccination.
On top of all this, postwar Japan witnessed numerous health crises from industrial pollution and corporate criminal negligence. In the 1950s, it was discovered that chemical maker Nippon Chisso had been dumping toxic mercury into the nearby ocean in Kumamoto Prefecture in Minamata, resulting in countless cases of severe neurological disorders and birth defects—widely covered in Japan as the “Minamata disease”. In the same period, processed-foods maker Morinaga sold powdered baby milk formula laced with arsenic, resulting in 13,389 babies being poisoned, leading to 600 deaths and 6,093 children left with severe lasting health problems and mental handicaps.
In the 1950s, it was discovered that chemical maker Nippon Chisso had been dumping toxic mercury into the nearby ocean in Kumamoto Prefecture in Minamata, resulting in countless cases of severe neurological disorders and birth defects—widely covered in Japan as the “Minamata disease.” In the same period, processed-foods maker Morinaga sold powdered baby milk formula laced with arsenic.
What stands out in these cases is the stubborn refusal of either the government or corporations to acknowledge responsibility. It took nearly 26 years for example before the Morinaga finally acknowledged the victims’ claims, and it wasn’t until 2019 that the government admitted that its forced isolation of leprosy patients constituted a human rights violation. At the same time, the MHLW has still refused to recant for forced sterilizations under the postwar Eugenics Law. Thus it seems that a much more serious issue than the “vaccine hesitancy” of some individuals today is the Japanese government’s “responsibility hesitancy” when it comes to recognizing the damaging effects of its national policies.
The “War on Covid” and the Suppression of Dissent
The specter of past mass medical mobilization campaigns loomed large in Japan’s Covid-19 policies. In order to coerce consent and compliance, Japanese politicians and the media repeatedly framed Covid-19 as a state of “war”. Thus when the government passed the Special Measures Law (tokubetsu sochi-hō) in March 2020, allowing the prime minister to declare “states of emergency”, restrict individual liberties and essentially rule by decree, it was deemed a “necessary” wartime-like sacrifice. The mass media meanwhile engaged in incessant fearmongering by portraying Covid-19 as a terrifying “enemy” that must be defeated at all costs. The bombardment of daily Covid case updates was one example of such messaging.
This created an atmosphere of paranoia in which national citizens were mobilized to contribute to the “war” effort by following orders and by avoiding the “treacherous” act of catching Covid. As one commentator noted, contracting the virus was not only deemed a cardinal sin and the ultimate act of “causing trouble” (meiwaku) for others, but under the Special Measures Law, it was tantamount to a crime.
As one commentator noted, contracting the virus was not only deemed a cardinal sin and the ultimate act of “causing trouble” (meiwaku) for others, but under the Special Measures Law, it was tantamount to a crime.
It was against this background that, in February 2021, the government began its mass vaccination campaign, launching the vaccine as the “new weapon” against the deadly virus. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio declared that the country was “waging a battle against Covid-19” and the government befittingly dispatched the military Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to administer the newly-weaponized vaccine. Similarly, local governments around the country mailed each adult citizen special “vaccine tickets” much like a wartime draft notice.
In this militarized milieu vaccine casualties were “naturalized” as an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice. Yet even by wartime standards such “friendly fire” was approaching dangerous levels. Just nine months into the mass-vaccination campaign, there were already 1,327 reported cases of Covid vaccine deaths and many more injuries. Entire batches of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were found to be contaminated with metallic substances and were recognized to have already caused the deaths of two young men.
Yet far from awarding such victims medals of valor, the government and mass media actively ignored or suppressed their claims. Reports of negative vaccine side effects were drowned out amidst a flood of pro-vaccine propaganda. The Japanese state broadcaster NHK printed long specials, urging even pregnant women and healthy college students to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, the unvaccinated faced intense criticism and pressure, including threats to their jobs, school expulsion, and being refused medical treatment or even hospital entry.
Much as in the West, getting vaccinated was no longer a “free” choice, but an imperative. It was presented as a “selfless” act that would “protect one’s family and friends”, just as military service had been portrayed eighty years ago. Given Japan’s world-class faith in the mass media, it’s no wonder that most people eventually cooperated. Meanwhile victims’ voices and reports of vaccine injuries were erased from public view.
Vaccine Victims Fight Back
In late 2021, as Japan’s leaders and media were praising the “effectiveness” of the vaccines and promoting the third booster shot campaign, the country’s vaccine victims were forming their own movement. In December, Kimura Aimi, a woman in her thirties, formed the Association for Patients Injured by the Covid-19 Vaccine (Shinkata korona wakuchin kanja no kai; hereafter “Patient’s Association”), together with around 100 fellow activists. Kimura had been hospitalized after experiencing intestinal bleeding and a host of other symptoms following her second shot. Although she thought she was “going to die”, doctors were reluctant to investigate and forcefully denied any connection to the vaccine.
“When I said the symptoms started after getting the Covid vaccine, many hospitals wouldn’t even believe me. I felt really alone”, Kimura explained. “All the major TV stations and newspapers totally ignore’ vaccine victims”, she said.
The Patients’ Association quickly gathered nearly 3,000 signatures, many from professionals including doctors, lawyers, and medical specialists, demanding that the government recognize the existence of the vaccine injured and provide support under the Relief System.
Calls were also growing for the government to recognize vaccine-related deaths. Suda Mutsuko’s husband was just 42 years old when he died suddenly from a heart attack just three days after his second shot. In October 2022, Suda and over 100 others formed the Association of Bereaved Family Members for Victims of the Covid Vaccine (“Bereaved Association”) demanding that the MHLW recognize their cases.
As similar reports poured in, the floodgates slowly began to break on the media silence surrounding vaccine victims, with reports appearing on TV broadcaster TBS and in national dailies such as the Mainichi and the Asahi.
The government’s response however did not follow suit. The MHLW had already admitted that the Pfizer and Moderna shots could cause myocarditis especially in young men and had even begun to acknowledge a small number of vaccine-related deaths (cases 1 and 2).
But beyond this, the ministry had made few serious attempts to engage with the mounting number of victims’ claims. This was a tremendous problem, since by March 2023 the MHLW had already received 36,317 reports of vaccine injuries, 8,548 of which were listed as severe, and 1,998 reports of vaccine-related deaths (By Oct. 2023, that number had grown to 2,131). The number of Covid vaccine injury cases was so great that it exceeded the total number of cases for the entire prior history of the Relief System program from 1977 to 2021. Yet most cases, around 60%, had still not even been reviewed by the MHLW.
The problems were typified by the case of a woman in her 30s who applied to the Relief System after her vaccine injuries had forced her to quit her job. After gathering thousands of pages of documents over the course of the year-and-a-half-long application process, she ultimately received a mere ¥80,000 ($514) with no official recognition of the cause of her injuries.
After gathering thousands of pages of documents over the course of the year-and-a-half-long application process, a young vaccine injured woman ultimately received a mere ¥80,000 ($514) with no official recognition of the cause of her injuries.
“There’s nothing speedy about the process”, she said. “Even though the government recommended the vaccine in the first place, it seems like they have no intent to follow up with the health damages”.
Yet perhaps the most heartbreaking evidence that the Patient’s Association gathered were detailed testimonies from the vaccine injured, many of whom were still in their teens. These included cases of children suddenly losing the ability to walk and being bedridden or confined to wheelchairs, developing serious diseases like POTS and Addison’s Disease, and even having to drop out of school. The mother of one 11-year-old boy plagued by severe fatigue and headaches wrote that her son had “given up hope of living”. Another parent of a 17-year-old girl described how her once bright daughter’s dreams were “snatched away in an instant”, after her ability to read and comprehend language was permanently damaged.
The mother of one 11-year-old boy plagued by severe fatigue and headaches wrote that her son had “given up hope of living”.
Medical journalist Toridamari Toru, working partly with the Patient’s Association, published many detailed victims’ testimonies under the book title Medical Damages and Side-effects of the Covid Vaccines in 2023. The many gut-wrenching accounts describe severely injured patients with debilitating physical or cognitive damages losing hope and fearing for their lives even while being shunned, if not ridiculed, by doctors and hospitals.
In July 2023 the Patient’s Association along with Toridamari and others submitted their evidence to the MHLW, requesting improvements to the Relief System and greater recognition and assistance for the vaccine injured.
But not much relief has been forthcoming, while any kind of acknowledgement of responsibility seems still further off. This background therefore led to the class-action lawsuit launched by thirteen members of the Bereaved and Patient’s Association against the central government.
The plaintiffs have requested for the government to recognize that the vaccines caused pharmaceutical harm (yakugai), for an apology for failing to inform the public of the negative side effects, and for ¥3 million ($19,000) in compensation for each of the lawsuit victims.
But more importantly, their case seeks to clarify the issue of responsibility: “Despite the fact that there was an unprecedented number of reports of adverse side effects, many of them including serious long term effects and even many cases of reported deaths, the government ignored these negative reports and hid the facts from the public”, reads the introduction to their letter of complaint.
“Instead it employed its full powers to actively promote the vaccines”, it continues. “The main focus of this lawsuit is to question the government’s responsibility for exacerbating vaccine injuries by promoting the vaccines in this way”.
Speaking on behalf of the government, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa declined to comment on the case but, with bitter irony, responded that all vaccines have “unavoidable risks”. This was a stark contrast from just three years earlier, when the government’s vaccine czar, Kōno Tarō, forcefully dismissed vaccine criticism as “misinformation” and pronounced that the “medical advantages” of the vaccines “outweigh the risks”.
In May 2024, the Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca announced that it was recalling its Covid shot after findings that it could cause blood clots. The shot had already been taken by over 67 million worldwide. That same month, in an astounding reversal, the once notoriously pro-vaccine New York Times ran a long article on the vaccine injured in the US, highlighting how their painful symptoms had long been ignored. And in June, the Telegraph reported that the Covid vaccines may have caused “excess deaths” in the UK. The stigma around vaccine victims thus may be slowly dissipating.
In May 2024, the Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca announced that it was recalling its Covid shot after findings that it could cause blood clots. The shot had already been taken by over 67 million worldwide.
But in Japan hurdles remain. The history of the country’s vaccine injuries shows that it often can take years or even decades for the government to admit fault, if it ever does.
At the same time, vaccine victims’ symbolic impact is likely already being felt through increased media attention. As with past groups before them, their cases highlight again the dangers of blind faith in “national policy” and the medical establishment.
