Japan rejects Korean slave labour lawsuit
Publish date: 07 March 2005
Issue Number: 1290
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: General
A Nagoya District Court in Japan has rejected a lawsuit brought by South Korean women who say they were forced to perform slave labour at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries munitions factory in Japan during World War II.
Presiding Judge Kunio Sakuma said the plaintiffs\' right to seek damages had lapsed under a 1965 agreement on wartime damages claims between Japan and South Korea, reports The Japan Times. The accord ruled out damages claims by individual South Koreans over wartime suffering caused by Japan. It offered a final solution to the issue in the form of $500m in economic assistance granted to South Korea by Japan. Two other lawsuits demanding compensation from the state have been dismissed by the Supreme Court. Full report in The Japan Times
