When an old list of individuals with leprosy who resided in Nagano Prefecture went up for auction in February, local authorities had no legal recourse to prevent the sale.
The ledger-like document, put on sale through the Yafuoku (Yahoo! Auction) site, shows the results of “a survey on leprosy patients and their family lines” in the prefecture during the Meiji Era (1868-1912).
Concerns rose that since the patients’ addresses and names were included on the ledger, its public release could generate a new wave of discrimination.
Nagano Prefecture was notified of the auction by Yutaka Fujino, a professor of Japanese modern and contemporary history at Keiwa College in Niigata Prefecture.