JAPAN’s government has defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after United Nations investigators criticised Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims.
In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment.
The statements on Monday underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical grievances to stabilise bilateral relations.
A group of UN investigators in July sent letters to Japan and South Korea as well as China, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Timor-Leste – where sexual slavery victims also come from – over what they described as the countries’ failures to “ensure access to truth, justice, remedy, and reparations for survivors”.
The governments were given 60 days to respond. Only the responses from Japan, South Korea and Indonesia were posted on a UN website as of yesterday morning.
UN investigators had asked Japan to address various concerns, including claims that its past investigations and reparations regarding sexual slavery were insufficient, that it continues to evade state and legal responsibility, and its refusal to comply with three South Korean court rulings from 2021 to 2025 ordering compensation for victims.
Japan responded by reiterating its long-standing position that all compensation matters with South Korea over sexual slavery victims were settled by past agreements, including the 1965 treaty normalising relations and a separate 2015 deal aimed at resolving their differences on the issue.
The Japanese statement claimed that the recent Korean court rulings violated the principle of state immunity in such lawsuits and urged Seoul to “take appropriate measures to remedy its breaches of international law as a country”.
Japan in past years has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government in Tokyo and Japanese companies to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery and also wartime forced labour, another legacy of Japan’s brutal colonial rule of Korea before the end of World War II.
Japan says the rulings violate its sovereign immunity and go against the 1965 treaty.
South Korean courts contend that sovereign immunity does not protect foreign states from accountability for crimes against humanity or wrongful acts committed on South Korea’s territory against its nationals. — AP
