Victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor celebrate a court ruling in front of the Supreme Court on Jan. 25, 2024, after the top court finalized rulings that ordered Nachi-Fujikoshi to pay 2.1 billion won in compensation. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The Supreme Court on Thursday finalized rulings in favor of victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor in lawsuits seeking compensation from their former Japanese employer.
The top court delivered the final rulings on three separate compensation suits filed by 23 forced labor victims and 18 family members of other victims between 2013 and 2015 against Nachi-Fujikoshi, a Japanese engineering firm.
The victims, all women, had been mobilized to work at the firm’s factory in Toyama, Japan, from 1944-1945, while South Korea was under Japan’s colonial rule, all through intimidation or coercion.
Under Thursday’s rulings, Nachi-Fujikoshi should pay between 80 million won (US$59,880) and 100 million won per plaintiff, which amounts to 2.1 billion won in total, plus interest for the delayed compensation.
But chances are low of the company making the payment because Japan has claimed that all reparations related to the 1910-45 colonial rule were settled under a 1965 treaty to normalize relations between the two countries.
The Supreme Court rejected the claim, adhering to the reasoning behind similar court decisions in recent months that recognized the victims’ rights to damages because they had been practically unable to execute their rights to compensation until 2018.
In 2018, the top court made a landmark ruling, determining for the first time that the 1965 treaty does not cancel out individuals’ rights to claim damages.
As Japanese firms engulfed in forced labor compensation suits are refusing to pay reparations, however, the South Korean government is planning to pay the court-ordered compensation to victims via a government relief foundation for forced labor victims.
(Yonhap)
