South Korea's Supreme Court upheld a wartime labor ruling and ordered a 3rd Japanese company to compensate its workers for forced labor.
The Thursday decision is the second ruling in the past week and quickly drew rebukes from Japan. However, observers have argued that it is unlikely that the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling will cause any major negative impacts on bilateral relations.
South Korean Court Upholds Wartime Labor Ruling
This is because both countries' governments are serious about improving their cooperation in the face of shared challenges, such as North Korea's nuclear program and China's assertiveness.
The South Korean Supreme Court ruled that Japanese shipbuilder Hitachi Zosen Corp. and heavy equipment manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries must give between $39,000 and $116,000 in compensation. This would be given to each of the 17 Korean plaintiffs, one of whom is a surviving ex-worker, and the rest are bereaved relatives.
Mitsubishi and another company, Nippon Steel, were previously given a similar compensation order by the South Korean Supreme Court. However, as per ABC News, the latest ruling is the first for Hitachi.
Among the plaintiffs in the case are the surviving victim who suffered a serious burn and the bereaved family of a worker who lost his life during an earthquake in Japan in 1944. The death occurred at a time when they worked for Mitsubishi's aircraft-making factory in Nagoya.
Other plaintiffs include the relatives of late Mitsubishi workers who were injured during the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and another wartime event. The ruling that benefits the Korean plaintiffs was widely expected.
This was because of two separate rulings in 2018 where the South Korean Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel to compensate some of their former Korean employees. The court said that they were forced to provide their labor to the companies when the Korean Peninsula was colonized by Japan from 1910 to 19145.
The country's top court again ordered Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel on Dec. 21 to provide compensation to other Koreans for similar colonial-era forced labor. In response to the ruling, Japan's Foreign Ministry summoned a senior South Korean diplomat to Japan to lodge a formal protest, according to the Associated Press.
Compensating Victims of Forced Labor
During the meeting between officials, the director-general for the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Hiroyuki Namazu called the latest South Korean ruling "extremely regrettable and absolutely unacceptable."
He maintained his country's long-held position that all compensation issues between the two countries were settled when they normalized ties in 1965. The 2018 and this month's South Korean Supreme Court rulings argued that the treaty cannot prevent individuals from seeking compensation for forced labor.
In March, Seoul said that the plaintiffs who have won lawsuits over forced labor during colonial rule would receive compensation from a South Korean government-backed foundation rather than the sued firms.
The South Korean government also said that the plaintiffs in ongoing cases would also qualify for compensation if they win damages. Many surviving victims and the bereaved families who won against Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi agreed to accept money from the foundation. However, there are others who refused to do so, said Nikkei Asia.
