Mitsubishi ordered to pay compensation for WWII slave labour
Eleven victims win court ruling as tensions rise between Japan and South Korea

South Korea’s Supreme Court has ordered a Japanese company to compensate 11 South Koreans who were subject to forced labour during the Second World War. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd must pay up to 150m won (£104,000) to the victims or their relatives.
The court’s decision upholds two lower court rulings, one of which ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay five women between 100m and 150m won, and in a separate ruling an additional 80m won to six men who were forced to work in a Mitsubishi shipyard and machine tool factory during the war.
One of the plaintiffs, 90-year-old Kim Seong-ju, cried as she spoke to the press. “I have harboured this grudge all my life, and I’m still living as if all of my bones protrude. That’s the weight of my grudges,” she said.
This is the court’s second blow to Japan, following the landmark verdict in October in favour of a group of South Koreans forced to work for Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp during the war.
Despite Japan’s insistence that reparations for forced labour were settled in a peace treaty at the end of the war, the court rulings uphold the right of individual victims to seek compensation.
In a statement issued after the Mitsubishi ruling, Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kono, warned that the verdict “fundamentally overturns the legal basis for friendly ties between Japan and South Korea”.
The Daily Telegraph reports that political analysts fear the court’s decision will intensify an already strained relationship between the two countries.
“There is a deep frustration in Tokyo that these sorts of rulings make it difficult to move forward on issues such as economic cooperation, security in north-east Asia and any number of other pressing matters right now,” Jun Okumura, a political analyst at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, told the Telegraph.
During the war, thousands of Koreans were forced to work in factories and mines in Japan. Korean women were among the thousands coerced into working as “comfort women”, or sex slaves, for Japanese troops across Asia.
-
Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime minister
In the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
-
Japan poised to get first woman prime minister
Speed Read The ruling Liberal Democratic Party elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of Taiwan
In the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdown
IN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American cities
Under the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctions
The Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
US and Japan strike trade deal
Speed Read Trump signed what he's calling the 'largest deal ever made'
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?
today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024