TOKYO - Japan's top court scrapped appeals Friday by five Chinese wartime forced laborers who demanded compensation from a Japanese construction company, saying they have no right to seek reparation from Japan, officials said.
The Supreme Court ruled that the company does not have to pay the money because Chinese individuals have no right to seek war compensation from Japan under a bilateral agreement.
Nishimatsu said the ruling "was in favor of our company and appropriate," but refused to say whether it would consider a court suggestion for a voluntary settlement.
Friday's decision scraps the Hiroshima High Court's decision and was expected to set a precedent for pending lawsuits by Chinese individuals seeking wartime compensation.
Supreme Court chief justice Ryoji Nakagawa said the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, in which Beijing abandoned its right to claim war reparations from Japan, makes it impossible for Chinese individuals to seek wartime compensation from Japan, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said.
The court, however, acknowledged that the plaintiffs had to work under severe conditions that caused them illnesses and injuries and urged the construction company to voluntarily take atonement measures.
The five plaintiffs _ three survivors and two family members representing men who have since died _ said they were brought over by Japan's military in July 1944 and forced to work for Nishimatsu as virtual slaves at a power plant construction site in Hiroshima until the war ended a year later.
Some 40,000 Chinese were taken to Japan in the early 1940s to work as slave laborers, mostly in coal mines and ports, including about 360 at Nishimatsu. Tens of thousands of others from Asian countries also were brought here as wartime slave laborers.
Japan's government also has faced dozens of pending lawsuits filed by other Asian victims of Japan's wartime atrocities, including former sex slaves, but maintained it settled all compensation issues in postwar treaties.
Some Japanese courts have in recent years acknowledged that the government and Japanese companies broke the law by using forced labor. But they rarely rule in favor of plaintiffs seeking compensation, often citing the expiration of the deadline for filing such claims, which is usually 20 years under Japanese law.
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