South Korea orders Japan to pay damages to group of former ‘comfort women’ over treatment in military brothels
- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has criticised the comfort women ruling as ‘totally unacceptable’
- Some Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers have requested Tokyo consider countermeasures against the ruling
A South Korean court ruling that ordered the Japanese government to pay damages to a group of former “comfort women” over their treatment in Japanese military brothels became final Saturday as a deadline for Tokyo to appeal expired.
The Japanese government had until Friday to appeal the first such ruling in South Korea, but it refused to participate in the case from the outset, citing sovereign immunity – a principle under international law that allows a state to be shielded against the jurisdiction of foreign courts.
“The ruling clearly goes against international law and an agreement between the Japanese and South Korean governments. It is extremely regrettable and utterly unacceptable,” Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in a statement.
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“Japan again strongly urges South Korea to immediately take appropriate measures to correct this state in violation of international law under its responsibility as a state,” Motegi said.
On January 8, the Seoul Central District Court awarded 12 plaintiffs 100 million won (US$90,400) each as demanded, saying the Japanese government committed “intentional, systematic and wide-ranging criminal acts against humanity.”
So-called ‘comfort women’ were subjected to sexual abuses by Japanese troops during World War 2.
The court also granted a provisional execution of the compensation order, making it possible to immediately seize Japanese government assets.
The ruling could worsen bilateral ties, which have sunk to the lowest point in decades following South Korean Supreme Court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to compensate groups of South Koreans for forced labour during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.