ZCZC
BFF-07
SKOREA-JAPAN-LABOUR-POLITICS
S. Korea court orders Japanese firm to pay for forced labour
SEOUL, Jan 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Seoul court on Friday dismissed a Japanese
machinery maker’s appeal against an order that it pay 17 South Korean women
100 million won ($89,000) each for forced wartime labour, the latest in a
series of rulings raising tensions between the neighbours.
South Korea and its former colonial power Japan are both US allies who
have to contend with nuclear-armed North Korea and a rising China.
But their relationship is soured by issues of past history, including
Koreans forced to work at Japanese firms’ factories during the Second World
War, and a territorial row over Seoul-controlled islets also claimed by
Japan.
South Korean courts have made a series of orders against Japanese firms,
and Seoul’s President Moon Jae-in said earlier this month Tokyo should take a
“more humble” attitude to history.
The latest ruling involved 17 South Korean women made to work at Nachi-
Fujikoshi’s Toyama assembly lines — where it produced weapons parts — in
1944 and 1945.
The victims were “tricked” into forced labour in harsh conditions, the
Seoul High Court said.
In 2014 a lower court ordered Nachi-Fujikoshi to pay the plaintiffs — who
include both surviving former workers and family members of those who have
died — 80 million won to 100 million won in unpaid wages and compensation
for emotional distress.
The company — now a manufacturer of robots and other machine tools —
appealed.
But the Seoul High Court upheld the original ruling on Friday, saying the
award was not excessively high and that the plaintiffs had a right to seek
compensation.
Japan says the victims’ right to sue was extinguished by the 1965 deal
that saw Tokyo and Seoul restore diplomatic ties and included a reparation
package of about $800 million in grants and cheap loans.
But South Korean courts have made a series of recent rulings holding
private Japanese businesses responsible for forced labour, drawing Tokyo’s
ire, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denouncing such decisions as
“impossible”.
South Korea’s top court in November ordered Japanese giant Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries to pay 80 million to 150 million won to two separate groups
of 11 people for forced wartime labour at its plants.
Another court earlier this month ordered the seizure of South Korean
assets owned by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal in a similar case, prompting
condemnation by Tokyo.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1026 hrs