hankyoreh

South Korean plaintiffs Yang Geum-deok (left) and Kim Jae-rim

The Japanese government is holding briefings in which it is instructing Japanese companies that are being sued by Koreans who were conscripted into forced labor during Japan’s colonial occupation not to compensate the plaintiffs or even settle with them.

During the daily press briefing on the afternoon of Nov. 1, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, “As usual, we are in close contact with the Japanese companies that are being sued, including the company that was ruled against [by the South Korean Supreme Court on Sept. 30]. Since the ruling, we have been briefing companies about the position of the Japanese government and about the situation in South Korea in connection with the lawsuits.”

Previously, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the Japanese government would be holding three briefings from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 for Japanese companies that had been sued in an attempt to impress upon those companies that they should not pay damages or make a settlement since compensation for forced labor had already been resolved in a 1965 agreement between South Korea and Japan about outstanding claims and economic cooperation.

These briefings are being jointly organized by related ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; and the Ministry of Justice. The Japanese government is planning to actively help these companies respond to the lawsuits and is expected to consider covering their legal fees as well.

On Oct. 30, South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision ordering Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Co. (formerly Nippon Steel, or Japan Iron and Steel Co.) to pay 100 million won (US$88,956) each in damages to four Koreans forced to work for the company. There are over 70 Japanese companies (including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nachi-Fujikoshi and IHI Corporation) that are currently facing similar lawsuits in South Korea.

On a related topic, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Japanese Diet’s budget committee that from this point forward the Japanese government will be using the expression “former workers from the Korean Peninsula” instead of the phrase “forced laborers.”

The shift appears to be aimed at denying that the Japanese government forcibly mobilized Koreans during the colonial period or to minimize the scope of such activities. “Under the National Mobilization Law [enacted in 1938], requisition orders included recruitment, placement and conscription,” Abe said, arguing that some of the plaintiffs had “responded to recruitment.”

Abe’s remarks are interpreted to mean that, among the various methods that Japanese companies used to mobilize Korean workers at the time, “recruitment” and “government placement” did not constitute compulsory mobilization and only the workers who were conscripted after 1944 can be regarded as forced laborers. But even mobilization that relied on recruitment and government placement was effectively compulsory, since these workers were mobilized through the executive power of the Japanese colonial administration, and the workers thus mobilized were forced to do hard labor under the harsh supervision of Japanese companies.

Furthermore, these workers were required to sign up for various kinds of insurance and installment savings programs, which ultimately meant they did not receive decent pay. For such reasons, the South Korean government regards all workers who were mobilized after the National Mobilization Act was enacted as having been the victims of compulsory mobilization.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]