[JURIST] The Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry [official website, English version] announced Tuesday it plans to appeal a court ruling requiring the nation to pay compensation to former Taiwanese leprosy [CDC backgrounder] patients who were incarcerated during Japanese colonial rule, between 1916 and 1945. Last month, the Tokyo District Court held that a 2001 law requiring compensation for Japanese leprosy patients should also be applied to its former colonies. On the same day the court ruled in favor of the Taiwanese patients, different judges on the same court dismissed an identical case brought by South Korean victims. That decision has already been appealed. The cases stem from a Japanese law which subjected patients to forcible incarceration in isolation centers, as well as forced sterilization and abortions to avoid the spread of the disease, which is curable and not easily communicated. Reuters has more. Mainichi Daily News has local coverage.