Reiwa 6 (Wa) No. 18712 Damages Claim Case (Forced Labor Lawsuit)

In 2024, South Korean plaintiffs who were forcibly mobilized to work for Japan’s Nippon Steel during World War II filed a damages lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court under case number Reiwa 6 (Wa) 18712. The case proceeded to hearings in 2025. The plaintiffs, including surviving victims and their families, sought compensation for unpaid wages and human rights violations during the colonial era. They argued that their individual claims against the company were not extinguished by the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations and the accompanying Claims Settlement Agreement between Japan and South Korea, contending that crimes against humanity cannot be waived by intergovernmental accords. Nippon Steel argued that all compensation issues were completely and finally settled by the 1965 agreement. The court examined the tension between international treaty obligations and individual rights claims.

In 2025, the Tokyo District Court dismissed all claims. It ruled that the 1965 agreement settled all compensation rights, including forced labor claims, and that the plaintiffs had no legal standing to sue. The court declined to rule on whether forced labor constituted a crime against humanity.

Whether the 1965 Japan-South Korea Claims Settlement Agreement conclusively extinguished the individual rights of forced labor victims to seek damages, and whether forced mobilization during colonial rule constitutes a crime against humanity that cannot be waived by state agreements.

The ruling intensified historical and diplomatic tensions between Japan and South Korea. Victim advocacy groups and the South Korean government criticized the decision, while Japan maintained its legal stance that colonial-era reparations were resolved. The case set a significant domestic precedent, discouraging similar lawsuits in Japan but fueling cross-border litigation and impacting bilateral efforts toward historical reconciliation.