Consequence of Revisionism

There are growing opposition in Japan against consecutive sentences in South Korea, in which the courts acknowledged the right of former Korean requisition workers in wartime Japan to demand compensation from Japanese employers at the time of colonial occupation. Although the Basic Relations Treaty between those two countries determines that South Korea renounces all rights of compensatory demands to Japan, the sentences of courts ignore the agreement. It should be regarded as one of the reflections of revisionism in Japan.

Turning down the decision of High Court, the Supreme Court of South Korea, for the first time, gave a sentence in May last year that private right of former requisition workers to demand compensation had not expired and ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to pay compensation. Earlier this month, the Gwangju District Court ordered Mitsubishi to pay 150 million won per person, accepting demands of former Girls Volunteer Corps in Imperial Japan.

Defendants of the case have not accepted the order of compensation. But, it is possible for the courts in South Korea to seize their assets, if the companies keep on rejecting compensation.

Those decisions of the courts were based on a notion that colonial occupation was against international law and the rights of former workers who had been forced to unwilling labor would not be denied, regardless bilateral agreement between the governments. On the other hand, the Government of Japan has been taking the position that all the compensations were settled by the treaty with South Korea.

Being afraid of additional cost in business in South Korea, Japanese companies are worried about current judicial assertion in South Korea. Business groups including Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, delivered a statement that expressed deep concern against the trend of demanding wartime compensation. “It might be obstacles against business or investment on South Korea,” the statement described. Finding a nuance of threat, Korean people criticized it.

The Japanese should take those actions in the neighbor country as a reflection of revisionism in its domestic politics. It was the highest political leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who referred to revising Kono Statement, in which the Government of Japan acknowledged former aggression and colonization. A co-leader of Japan Restoration Party, Toru Hashimoto, questioned the way of thinking that an activity regarded as right in old time may turn to guilty in light of modern concept, in the discussion over the Comfort Women. South Korea is opposing those movements in Japan.