The Tokyo-based Ban Asbestos Network Japan (BANJAN) is lobbying the Japanese government to recognize and support compensation for workers who contracted mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases on the job. The organization is made up of civic groups and labor unions.

BANJAN is examining cases where workers contracted mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, as well as asbestos-related lung cancer. The group says only 7 percent of those who develop lung cancer as a result of asbestos exposure receive any support or compensation. Support for mesothelioma patients has increased slightly, from about 44.4 percent between 1995 and 2007, to about 51.8 percent of victims receiving compensation in 2004.

According to a report in The Mainichi Daily News,  often times those suffering from mesothelioma or asbestos-related illnesses are not aware of available services, or do not know how to go about filing for compensation. There also are strict guidelines to qualify for compensation, promptin BANJAN to call for a revision of the Asbestos Health Damage Relief Law to help workers qualify for benefits.

Perhaps a good sign, this week Daily News reported that the head council for the Fund for Local Government Employees Accident Compensation overturned an earlier decision to deny compnesation to the family of a worker who died of mesothelioma. Masanori Takeda died in December 2005. His work involved handling asbestos insulation.

Originally, the News reports, the compensation fund’s Osaka branch and its screening committee rejected the claim for compensation, which was filed by Takeda’s wife, saying the asbestos exposure was not a primary function of the worker’s job and therefore didn’t qualify for the public service casualty compensation.

However, the head council ruled the man’s job did involve long term exposure to asbestos, and that the mesothelioma was a result of that exposure, and granted the compensation claim.

In what unions in the UK are calling a “hugely important victory,” the High Court ruled insurance policies in place when a worker was exposed to asbestos are liable for asbestos-related illnesses, including mesothelioma, which may develop later, according to a BBC News report. The verdict was delivered in a “test case” that examined six individual cases against insurance companies.

According to the news report, the High Court had to decide which insurance policy should cover mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases – the one in effect at the time of exposure (a liability insurance held by companies to insure them against claims by employees injured on the job) or the one in effect when a worker becomes sick.

Part of the problem with asbestos-disease related claims is that there is usually a very long latency period for mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases. Sometimes symptoms do not develop for as many as 40 or more years after exposure. As a result, a person does not realize he or she has been injured in the workplace until many years later.

According to the BBC story, this ruling was especially important because many new insurance policies have exemptions against asbestos-related claims.

More than 2,000 people were diagnosed with mesothelioma in the UK last year, and those numbers are expected to grow.

BBC video: Mesothelioma victims’ solicitor Carolann Hepworth reacts to High Court Ruling.