Wartime forced laborer receives compensation from Japanese company for first time

Representatives for victims of forced labor by Japanese companies speak to the press after a ruling held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 1. [YONHAP]

A forced wartime labor victim received compensation deposited by a Japanese company for the first time on Tuesday.

However, the money in question was deposited with a court as collateral, not as compensation per se.

The family of a victim by the surname of Lee, who was forced into labor during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) by the Hitachi Zosen Corporation, a major Japanese industrial and engineering corporation, said at Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday that they collected 60 million won ($44,840) deposited as collateral by the company.

Lee filed a lawsuit against Hitachi Zosen for damages in 2014, and the court ruled that the company pay Lee 50 million won plus delayed interest in the first and second trials.

Accordingly, in January 2019, Hitachi Zosen deposited 60 million won with the court as collateral to prevent compulsory execution — reportedly the only case where a Japanese forced labor company paid money to a Korean court.

The Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Lee last December, and Lee applied for a seizure and collection order preventing Hitachi Zosen from collecting the deposited money.

Lee died before the Supreme Court ruling was handed out, and his family has been continuing efforts on the victim’s part.

"This is the first time that money voluntarily paid by a Japanese company has been delivered to a victim of forced labor," said Lee Min, the lawyer representing Lee’s family. "It's meaningful that a Japanese company has provided de facto compensation for some victims."

Major rulings regarding the forced labor issue were handed down in December last year, including Lee’s case against Hitachi Zosen and two separate cases against other Japanese companies, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel, on Dec. 21, 2023.

The Supreme Court upheld lower courts’ rulings on a case where seven victims and their relatives sued Nippon Steel for the victims’ forced labor between 1942 and 1945.

It also upheld the lower courts’ rulings on another case where four victims and their relatives sued Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for victims’ forced labor between 1944 and 1945.

The Japanese companies were ordered by the Supreme Court to pay between 100 million and 150 million won for each victim.

These two cases, dating to 2013 and 2014, were filed after the Supreme Court doled out its landmark rulings in May 2012 in favor of Koreans seeking compensation from Japanese companies that used them as forced laborers during Japan's occupation of Korea.

It was the first time that victims of Korean forced labor had won in court against Japanese companies.

Japanese corporations challenged the historic decisions made in 2012, as the case was reversed and remanded to a lower court, but in the end, the Supreme Court maintained its original ruling in 2018, favoring 15 plaintiffs — victims and relatives combined.

As of February this year, 63 cases of damage suits have been filed by victims of forced labor against Japanese companies.

A total of 12 final rulings have been made since the first plaintiffs' victories in landmark Supreme Court rulings in 2018, with the court siding with the victims in all cases.

Korea’s and Japan’s leaders held seven summit meetings last year in a sign of warming relations.

The Yoon Suk Yeol government proposed a Korea-funded compensation plan earlier this year to compensate the victims involved in the landmark cases, sparking controversy among many victims' groups.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]