Three more people sued the state on Thursday for damages over past sterilizations and an abortion forcibly carried out under the now-defunct eugenics protection law.

A married couple in Hokkaido and a man in Kumamoto Prefecture filed the lawsuits at their respective district courts, seeking a total of 44 million yen ($400,000) in damages. They claim that conducting sterilizations without their consent or against their will was unconstitutional and the government had failed to provide relief measures.

The total number of plaintiffs in sterilization lawsuits against the government since January has now increased to seven.

"The surgery robbed us of our long-awaited opportunity to have a child as well as the right to decide whether or not to have one," said the couple, who became the first plaintiffs to sue the state over an abortion.

According to the complaint and the couple's personal notes, a Hokkaido woman with a moderate intellectual disability who is now 75 had married and become pregnant in 1981.

One of the relatives found out about her pregnancy when she was taking a bath and then eventually forced her and her husband to sign a document of consent for an abortion and surgery for sterilization. She underwent the surgery in June 1981.

Recounting the ordeal in his personal notes, the husband, who is now 81, said he felt terrible for his role in allowing his wife to undergo sterilization and an abortion.

The relative told his wife, "You'll never be able to give birth to children nor raise them because you are mentally deficient," and also expressed concern that a deformed child may be born.

In her personal notes, the wife recalled how the relative told her about the burden of having to raise the child should she go ahead with her pregnancy. "You cannot raise a child, so we would end up having to take care of the child," she quoted the relative as telling her.

To this day, she regrets losing her chance to bear a child. "Together with my husband, I would have liked to raise our child," she said.

Her husband said he felt the same way. Even after 37 years, he feels sorry for his wife.

After he first learned about newspaper reports on the issue in March, he was encouraged to take action. He is the first person to bring a case to court as a family member of someone who underwent surgery.

He wants to make their case known in court and urged others in similar situations to fight for the cause.

Kazumi Watanabe from Kumamoto, who is now 73, had osteoarthritis as a child and was forced to undergo an orchidectomy -- removal of one or both testicles -- without his consent.

(Kazumi Watanabe, 2nd from left, speaking to a crowd in front of Kumamoto District Court)

He found out about it when he asked his parents after realizing there was something different about him from his classmates when he was in junior high school.

In a press conference after filing the lawsuit, Watanabe said he decided to go public when he left home earlier in the day and that he wanted to give courage to similar victims.

"Forced surgeries must not happen again. By fighting against the state, I would like this to be my living testimony," he said.

A string of lawsuits has ensued since the first one filed by a woman in her 60s in Miyagi Prefecture in January.

A lawyers' group was then formed in May to cover victims nationwide. More people including a woman in her 70s in Kumamoto, a married couple in Kobe and a woman in Fukuoka city are expected to follow.

The state argued at a June 13 hearing at the Sendai District Court that it is not obliged to pay compensation to sterilized people, saying the state "had no duty to legislate relief measures separately from the national compensation law." But the court made no reference to the unconstitutionality of the eugenics law.