Seoul Appeals Court Upholds Damages for Wartime Forced Labor Victims

A Seoul appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling ordering Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp. to compensate five South Koreans who were forced to work in Japan during World War II.

The appellate division of the Seoul Central District Court ordered the company to pay the plaintiffs a combined 99 million won, or about $74,500. The decision maintained a lower court ruling that had partially accepted the plaintiffs’ claims.

Under the award, one plaintiff identified by the surname Heo is to receive approximately 27 million won. Each of the other four plaintiffs is to receive 18 million won. Mitsubishi Materials was formerly known as Mitsubishi Mining.

The ruling adds to a series of South Korean court decisions recognizing individual claims for damages arising from forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Japanese companies have faced multiple lawsuits filed by victims and their families in South Korea, with the legal dispute continuing to shape relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

The central legal issue is whether a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between South Korea and Japan settled not only claims between the two governments but also the rights of individual victims to seek compensation.

South Korea’s Supreme Court addressed that question in landmark decisions in 2018. It concluded that the bilateral treaty did not extinguish the right of individuals to pursue damages against Japanese companies for forced labor. Those judgments established the basis for numerous subsequent rulings in lower courts.

Tuesday’s appellate decision follows that legal framework by leaving the lower court’s compensation order intact. The case concerns civil damages owed by the company directly to the five plaintiffs, rather than a payment negotiated between governments.

The judgment is another step in a long-running legal process surrounding wartime labor claims. Although South Korean courts have repeatedly recognized the right to seek compensation, individual cases can continue through appeals, and questions over enforcement have remained part of the broader dispute.

For the plaintiffs, the latest ruling preserves the amounts awarded by the lower court. For Mitsubishi Materials, it represents another adverse decision in South Korea’s courts over conduct linked to Japan’s colonial-era mobilization of Korean workers.