The ruling clearly violates the agreement that Japan and South Korea concluded when they normalized their diplomatic relations. Such an unjust judicial decision, undermining the foundation that has stabilized bilateral ties for many years, is utterly unacceptable.
In a lawsuit in which four former requisitioned South Korean workers, who were mobilized from the Korean Peninsula while it was a Japanese colony, claimed damage compensation from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., South Korea's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the company.
With the latest decision, a 2013 high court ruling that ordered the steelmaker to pay a total of 400 million South Korean won (about 40 million yen) has become final.
The problem is that South Korea's top court has concluded that former requisitioned workers can still exercise the right of individuals to make claims against a Japanese company for damage compensation despite a stipulation in the 1965 Japan-South Korea agreement on the settlement of problems concerning property and claims and on economic cooperation that the issues of claims between both sides had been "settled completely and finally."
It is apparent from the records of negotiations back then that the former requisitioned workers were also subject to the agreement. Past South Korean administrations have also recognized this, and the administration of then South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun devised a policy in 2005 that the South Korean government itself would extend relief to former requisitioned workers.
The top court ruling did not fully consider all these facts. It concluded that the accord did not cover individuals' rights to seek compensation for requisitioning, saying, "Requisition was an illicit act done by Japanese firms connected to Japan's illegal colonial rule."
Moon must handle situation
An earlier lawsuit filed in Japan by some of the former requisitioned workers had resulted in finalized rulings against them, but South Korea's top court did not accept this, asserting that Japanese court precedents run counter to the public order and morality of South Korea.
South Korea's top court also judged in 2012 that former requisitioned workers had the right to seek compensation as individuals. It can be said that even in the latest decision, the Grand Bench of the Supreme Court goes along with anti-Japanese nationalism, affirming the unreasonable 2012 recognition.
Whether or not the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was legal was not settled even during the bilateral negotiations over the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries. It is incomprehensible that South Korea's judiciary has ignored the circumstances in which both countries, while having shelved this issue, followed a path toward reconciliation.
It is quite reasonable for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to strongly criticize the ruling, saying, "The ruling is a judgment that is impossible in light of international law."
Foreign Minister Taro Kono lodged a protest with the South Korean ambassador to Japan, emphatically saying, "We ask the South Korean government to take resolute and necessary measures so that Japanese companies and Japanese people would not suffer any disadvantage."
If things are left as they are, assets of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal could be seized. As there have been similar lawsuits filed one after another by former requisitioned workers and others, it is concerning that a succession of compensation orders against Japanese companies could be issued by South Korean courts. The Japanese government should study all plausible measures to take, including its taking the case to the International Court of Justice.
If South Korean President Moon Jae In aims at building future-oriented Japan-South Korea relations, he must do his utmost to get matters under control.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 31, 2018)
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