Families of former Chinese workers file suit against six Japanese companies over wartime forced recruitment

[Beijing Jiji] On the 16th, 50 bereaved families of former Chinese workers who were forcibly taken to Japan and forced to work during the war filed a complaint with the Superior People's Court in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, against six Japanese companies, including Kajima Construction and Nippon Steel Mining, demanding damages of approximately 370,000 yuan (approximately 8.5 million yen) per person. The plaintiff group made this clear.

The plaintiffs are also demanding that an apology be published in at least 10 major media outlets in both Japan and China. The lawsuit states that the forced abduction has caused "extreme hardship to the workers themselves and inflicted lasting mental pain on their families."

The Japanese government takes the position that the issue of forced abduction of Chinese nationals has been resolved through the 1972 Japan-China Joint Statement, in which China waived its claims for war reparations. At a press conference on the 16th, Chinese Foreign Ministry Deputy Press Secretary Guo Jiakun said, ``We urge the Japanese side to look squarely at history and seriously face the legitimate and reasonable demands of the people of the countries that suffered damage in Asia.''