Forced Labor Victims' Compensation Lawsuit Dismissed Again... Court Sides with Japan Once More

Seoul Central District Court / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The court once again did not recognize the liability of Japanese companies to compensate victims of forced labor under Japanese colonial rule. This ruling, which came two months after the court dismissed a lawsuit filed by other forced labor victims in June, was made by a different division of the same court with a different perspective.

On the 11th, Judge Seongin Park of the Civil Division 25 at the Seoul Central District Court ruled against five bereaved families of forced labor victims in a damages lawsuit filed against Mitsubishi Materials (formerly Mitsubishi Mining). The court ordered, "All claims by the plaintiffs are dismissed, and the plaintiffs shall bear the litigation costs." The court did not explain the reasons for this ruling in court. However, interpretations both inside and outside the court suggested that the decision was based on the statute of limitations.

The statute of limitations is a system that extinguishes rights if they are not exercised within a certain period. The right to claim compensation must be exercised within three years from the date the damage or the perpetrator is known. Until now, interpretations of the statute of limitations for this compensation claim have differed between forced labor victims and Japanese companies. Forced labor victims have argued that the statute of limitations should be calculated based on the 2018 Supreme Court plenary session ruling that confirmed the compensation liability. On the other hand, Japanese companies have insisted that the 2012 Supreme Court appellate ruling should be the basis for the statute of limitations. In 2012, the Supreme Court overturned and remanded the case in favor of the plaintiffs, recognizing the liability of Japanese companies, and this ruling was finalized in the 2018 plenary session after the remand trial.

The court’s ruling on this day differs from the decision by the Civil Division 34 (Presiding Judge Yangho Kim) of the same court in June, which dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by 85 forced labor victims and their families against 16 Japanese companies including Nippon Steel, Nissan Chemical, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The previous division ruled that under the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement, the victims’ compensation claims were limited, and that the Republic of Korea, not Japanese companies, should compensate the victims. Although both rulings can be superficially seen as victories for the Japanese companies, dismissal is issued when the lawsuit does not meet legal requirements, which is strictly different from rejection, which is a judgment made when the lawsuit meets legal requirements.

The differing circumstances of these two rulings are expected to be finally resolved by the Supreme Court. The case ruled on this day is one of several lawsuits filed by victims of forced labor under Japanese colonial rule. The case dismissed in June is currently undergoing a second trial after an appeal was filed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.