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Nippon Steel to appeal S Korea ruling allowing seizure of assets

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The so called "forced labor issue" was settled permanently in 1965. Its all over. Any seizure of Japanese assets will be illegal under International law. If SK tries this, they can kiss goodbye to ever seeing any vital materials sourced from Japan for Samsung smartphones and TVs. It will grind their economy to a halt.

Or if Japan really stooped to the SK level, they can certainly sieze Korean companies assets in Japan. The ball is in Moons court to immediately order the court decision void.

1 ( +21 / -20 )

seize all ! slavery have to stop. forced labors need to be compensated. put your non-sense 1965 fake agreement in the BS box. by the way, they used forced labor to clean fukushima. justice need to be made.

-4 ( +22 / -26 )

The korean leaders agreex previously it was settled.

So its over with done finished move on.

It is the never ending story with korea

1 ( +23 / -22 )

I gotta root for Japan this time.

Korea is not being politically correct.

This seizure is, certainly, illegal.

1 ( +22 / -21 )

it’s stressful for Japan but Japan has only have to go right way along with international law

An agreement between two countries was concluded in 1965 and Japan has already compensated for ¥500 millions to South Korea (no to the South Korean victims ). Then it was decided by it that any issues such as war or territorial right cannot be claimed any more.

-1 ( +18 / -19 )

Korea stop being ugly!

0 ( +18 / -18 )

If they are going to go to a South Korean Appellate Court......good luck with that.

4 ( +15 / -11 )

Following the ruling, Japan last year said it would stop preferential treatment for shipments to South Korea

Wait, following the ruling? Sounds like because of the ruling. To my knowledge Japan ended this preferential treatment because of other reasons. Again a storytale SK wants to bring to the world? Well, it did already like many others, too. Disgraceful. I would like to pay this country more respect for what they achieved but it it just not possible with this deplorable politics!

-1 ( +12 / -13 )

If SK tries this, they can kiss goodbye to ever seeing any vital materials sourced from Japan for Samsung smartphones and TVs. It will grind their economy to a halt.

@Fighto - In which alternate universe? A year on since Japan made it harder for SK to source materials for semi-conductors, here's what happened:

"Korea Inc. ditches Japan chipmaking materials for homegrown supply"

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-South-Korea-rift/Korea-Inc.-ditches-Japan-chipmaking-materials-for-homegrown-supply

Or if Japan really stooped to the SK level, they can certainly sieze Korean companies assets in Japan. The ball is in Moons court to immediately order the court decision void.

On what legal basis though? Try basing claims and predictions on reality rather than wishful daydreaming.

4 ( +17 / -13 )

Pay attention to what a group of Japanese lawyer have to say about this issue.

Joint statement by Japanese attorneys on the Korean Supreme Court ruling regarding victims of forced labor (Nov. 2018)

The forced labor issue is fundamentally a human rights issue.

The individual right to seek compensation has not been extinguished by the Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement.

The ruling is in line with advances in international human rights law that values remedies for individual victims.
1 ( +15 / -14 )

The forced labor issue is fundamentally a human rights issue.

The individual right to seek compensation has not been extinguished by the Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement.

The ruling is in line with advances in international human rights law that values remedies for individual victims.

@jeancolmar - But what would a Japanese lawyer know? The experts on JT have long declared that the victims deserve nothing.

0 ( +12 / -12 )

Go Korea!!!

-2 ( +12 / -14 )

I'm just going to leave this here. Go a read more of you like.

Hatoyama (former Prime Minister) said that Shunji Yanai, then director of the treaty bureau at Japan's foreign ministry in 1991, told a parliamentary session at the time that the normalization treaty did not put an end to individual rights to damages.

> "It was the official view of the Japanese government in the past, that (forced labor issue) was not finally and completely resolved by the treaty," he said.

1 ( +12 / -11 )

""Following the ruling, Japan last year said it would stop preferential treatment for shipments to South Korea of three materials whose production it dominates and which are used by firms such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.""

So if Backfired!!!

This is a civil matter, so why are the two governments getting involved?

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

What are we talking about is

 Nippon Steel to pay 100 million won ($83,800) each to four South Koreans as compensation for forced labor during World War

in the next century already ... and cannot adjust with just one neighbouring country after all this time?

so poor

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

And so going on this B. S. my father fought through North Africa and Europe for the British and as a result help to free the world and then came back severely emotionally upset and had issues that were passed on to his chidlren and their children and so forth and so on so we feel we should be compensated even now for the suffering we had to endure, either becuase of the germans or because of the british but WE want our justice NOW.,

but all I have to really say is move on and get on with it its called life.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

@Fighto!

The so called "forced labor issue" was settled permanently in 1965.

It's not. Damages were specifically excluded from 1965 treaty due to the errors of Japanese negotiators, leaving Japanese companies exposed to damages claim.

they can kiss goodbye to ever seeing any vital materials sourced from Japan for Samsung smartphones and TVs. It will grind their economy to a halt.

Abe san picked the most damaging materials for first export control and that didn't work.

Korean companies had a year to prepare for second wave of export control so it won't work either.

Japan's share of Korea's imports dropped to single digits and keeps dropping each year.

-6 ( +6 / -12 )

The downvotes and Anti-Japan flooding. Shows how many Koreans come here. Especially on articles regarding S. Korea.

S. Korea has gone back on multiple agreements with Japan. From the 1965 deal as Final, to 1993 deal, to 2015 comfort women deal as Final. To over 50 apologies by dozens of Prime Ministers which never happened.

S. Korea is hanging on for political reasons, because Japan is weak, willing to give another apology, pay one more time.

China has moved on and suffered more. Nanking massacre, Unit 731 all in China not Korea.

Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, Burma, Australia, America....Everyone is Moving On.

Only Korea is hanging on to this Agenda While the Rest of the World The Rest of Asia is Moving On. The Korean is left by himself on the Anti-Japan Hill.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

As always, two camps in the crowd here - smart people who are objective, and the naive people who fall for Abe's propaganda.

https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:13100:0::NO::P13100_COMMENT_ID:2218404

"The Government of Japan’s attempt to escape liability through the operation of these treaties fails on two counts: (a) Japan’s direct involvement in the establishment of the rape camps was concealed when the treaties were written, a crucial fact that must now prohibit on equity grounds any attempt by Japan to rely on these treaties to avoid liability; and (b) the plain language of the treaties indicates that they were not intended to foreclose claims for compensation by individuals for harms committed by the Japanese military in violation of human rights or humanitarian law"

Fact: The 1965 treaty did not cover comfort women nor forced laborers. Even the previous Japanese governments acknowledged the 1965 treaty did not cover these issues. Even the 100 Japanese lawyers agreed with the rulings made by South Korea's Supreme Court. Abe is a lying POS!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

And so going on this B. S. my father fought through North Africa and Europe for the British and as a result help to free the world and then came back severely emotionally upset and had issues that were passed on to his chidlren and their children and so forth and so on so we feel we should be compensated even now for the suffering we had to endure, either becuase of the germans or because of the british but WE want our justice NOW.,

but all I have to really say is move on and get on with it its called life.

Your father was sucked into a war that messed up all participants. Sad.

What a shame some of those participants descendants lost site of the rest of the world.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

ReasonandWisdomNippon, I absolutely agree with you.

We stand with you Japan against this incessant nonsense from South Korea.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

@ReasonandWisdomNippon

Only Korea is hanging on to this Agenda While the Rest of the World The Rest of Asia is Moving On. The Korean is left by himself on the Anti-Japan Hill.

To make a claim, understand the exact facts and make a claim that fits it. Regarding this fact, Abe's unconditional deterrence claims only make Japan's identity look worse.

In 2000, the Tokyo High Court ruled that Kashimagumi Construction, which was the subject of the assassination, ended up paying 500 million yen to the Chinese Red Cross Society, the victim's agent. Masato Niimura, a former judge of the Tokyo High Court, also claimed in the February issue of the Japanese monthly magazine Sekai that the original Japanese government had maintained that the individual claims were not extinguished.

The Supreme Court of Japan also made the same judgment in April 2007, when a victim of forced Chinese execution targeted a Japanese company.  According to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Japan, in April 2007, the court rejected plaintiff's claim in the case of Chinese forced labor, but the right of claim for compensation was not extinguished. In 1991, the Japanese government consistently stated that individual claims did not disappear, including the response of Yanai's deputy foreign policy chief. Although the trial itself was lost, Nishimatsu Construction paid the settlement gold to the victim because the claim was granted. 

Mitsubishi Materials made a reconciliation with Chinese victims to pay 100,000 Yuan per person (about 16.54 million won) to 3,765 victims in two years in relation to the compulsory damages lawsuit filed in Chinese court in 2014. The Hanaoka incident was a case in which hundreds of people were murdered after the Chinese who had been forced into the Hanaro Mine in Akita Prefecture in the late Pacific War caused a riot in protest against abuse and discrimination.

But now, the government is blocking the payment of money by Shin Il-cheol, Mitsubishi.

The reason is different from China. The victim's human rights remedy should be the same.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

From the beginning this trial was not even a matter of Japanese government involvement in the country.

This is a personal claim lawsuit against Japanese companies in SK where SK's individual citizens continue to do business in SK.

I don't know what Abe's ignorant intentions are, but I know he has exceptionally raised the SK trial as a national issue.

He also knows that he connects the word "national reward" in the "Korea-Japan Treaty" for good reason.

Those who do not know the law can believe Abe.

However, it should be noted that this is irrelevant.

Abe's actions could not be further understood because there was clearly content in the final judgment of the trial.

The content said : "First, it is not a national lawsuit, but a lawsuit on'personal claims'. There is anywhere in the Korea-Japan treaty document, only the fund for the state and the people. 

Therefore, we acknowledge that individuals have the right to claim even if their rights between countries have expired."

And 'personal rights claim' was already recognized long ago in Japanese law.

Even if Abe is true, why is there a reason to keep writing this kind of conflict article without doing a legitimate way to resolve this?

Solve legal problems neatly by law.

File a lawsuit against the Korean court in the international court.

Why Abe is the asking the SK government to change the ruling of a SK court?

Wouldn't Abe think of Korea as the same country as the Japanese system he knew?

Currently, Korea is a country that achieved democracy at the end of a seven-year struggle with the government, at the cost of numerous sacrifices to end the military dictatorship.

At that time, the protagonists of sacrifice entered the politics, and only 3 years ago, it was a nation of people who replaced the president with the power of the people.

The Japanese government needs to know that unlike Japan, SK does not do everything at will, even if it is at the top of the SK government.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Thanks for the support and supporting Korean victims of Imperial Japan. I have to make a correction, My about posting should have been in quotes.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

It's a Korean domestic issue. The SK government is responsible for taking care of former Korean labours. They "embuzzled" the fund from Japan aimed for labours, agreed on the 1965 treaty. The plaintiff has been totally mistaken, should have charged the Moon administration.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Guess no one really knows what SK government is doing...

Any one who reads 1965 treaty will agree japan fully compensated for all her wrongdoings during the colonization.

Problem SK government has:

That bill was signed between Japanese government and SK dictator who really didn't give a damn about human rights.

SK government is pushing for re evaluation of the treaty - legal using artical 31/32 of the vienna treaty.

Until the 2000s, Japanese government was actually for re evaluating Japan-Korea treaty for good faith.

Now that Japan has more than enough problems, obviously the abe regime does not want to.

I personally think SK government should fix this herself, but then I can understand their feelings as well.

Since the 1965 treaty, there has been advancement in human rights... and both countries have quite a bit of homework.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

The downvotes and Anti-Japan flooding. Shows how many Koreans come here. Especially on articles regarding S. Korea.

@"Reason" and "Wisdom" Nippon - That's an astonishing admission of the fact that you think there can only possibly be one correct point of view (i.e. Japanese government's) and anyone whose opinion differs is wrong.

I shake my head at your apparent belief that anyone who doesn't take Japan's side in this debate must only be taking that side because they are Korean. Unbelievable how narrow minded that is.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It'll never end. Even if Japan apologizes, S.K and the CCP will always look for ways to extort Japan for more money.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Fact: The 1965 treaty did not cover comfort women nor forced laborers. Even the previous Japanese governments acknowledged the 1965 treaty did not cover these issues. Even the 100 Japanese lawyers agreed with the rulings made by South Korea's Supreme Court. Abe is a lying POS!"

From the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea:

Article II

"1 The High Contracting Parties confirm that the problems concerning property, rights, and interests of the two High Contracting Parties and their peoples (including juridical persons) and the claims between the High Contracting Parties and between their peoples, including those stipulated in Article IV(a) of the Peace Treaty with Japan signed at the city of San Francisco on September 8, 1951, have been settled completely and finally."

The South Korean government demanded a total of 364 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the workforce and the military during the colonial period,[14] at a rate of 200 dollars per survivor, 1,650 dollars per death and 2,000 dollars per injured person.[15] South Korea agreed to demand no further compensation, either at the government or individual level, after receiving $800 million in grants and soft loans from Japan as compensation for its 1910–45 colonial rule in the treaty.

South Korea already received its compensation. Their further demand are in violation of the treaty they signed.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Why should companies be held liable for the actions of their predecessors 75 plus years ago?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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