Japanese media reported that a South Korean district court has dismissed a wartime labor related damages lawsuit against Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp, on the grounds that the plaintiffs launched the suit after a statute of limitations on the civil case had expired. The same Seoul Central District Court judge dismissed a similar suit against another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Materials Corp, last month on the same grounds. The two suits were filed in 2019 and 2017, respectively, by relatives of laborers during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. In both cases, Judge Pak Song In determined that plaintiffs had lost their right to seek claims in 2015.After the South Korean Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Nippon Steel and another Japanese company to compensate plaintiffs over forced labor during World War II, a spate of rulings against Japanese firms followed in lower courts. Three years earlier, in 2012, the Supreme Court, in a ground breaking decision, said the right of individuals such as former wartime laborers to pursue compensation from Japan was not nullified by a 1965 agreement between Japan and South Korea.The Civil Code in South Korea stipulates that victims lose their right to claim damages if they do not seek claims within three years of discovering harm. In the two district court rulings,
Japanese media reported that a South Korean district court has dismissed a wartime labor related damages lawsuit against Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp, on the grounds that the plaintiffs launched the suit after a statute of limitations on the civil case had expired. The same Seoul Central District Court judge dismissed a similar suit against another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Materials Corp, last month on the same grounds. The two suits were filed in 2019 and 2017, respectively, by relatives of laborers during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. In both cases, Judge Pak Song In determined that plaintiffs had lost their right to seek claims in 2015.After the South Korean Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Nippon Steel and another Japanese company to compensate plaintiffs over forced labor during World War II, a spate of rulings against Japanese firms followed in lower courts. Three years earlier, in 2012, the Supreme Court, in a ground breaking decision, said the right of individuals such as former wartime laborers to pursue compensation from Japan was not nullified by a 1965 agreement between Japan and South Korea.The Civil Code in South Korea stipulates that victims lose their right to claim damages if they do not seek claims within three years of discovering harm. In the two district court rulings,
