Japan has welcomed the South Korean plan to compensate the victims of forced labor during the Japanese militarism of the Korean peninsula, useful for re-establishing “healthy” ties after years of tension.
“The Tokyo government evaluates the measures announced today by the South Korean government as an effort to restore healthy Japan-South Korea ties after they found themselves in a very serious situation due to the 2018 ruling,” the Japanese foreign minister said. Yoshimasa Hayashi. In 2018, the Supreme Court in Seoul ordered some Japanese companies to pay various compensations for forced labour.
South Korea and Japan are both key US allies in regional security, but bilateral relations have long been strained due to Tokyo’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula in 1910-45.
According to data provided by Seoul, some 780,000 Koreans were forced into forced labor by Japan during the 35-year occupation, not counting women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops. Tokyo says a 1965 treaty – which saw the two countries restore diplomatic ties with a reparations package of some $800 million in grants and low-cost loans – settled all grievances between the two countries relating to the colonial period. . The Seoul government’s new plan calls for a local foundation to accept donations from major South Korean companies – which benefited from Japan’s 1965 reparations package – to compensate the victims.
“Cooperation between Korea and Japan is very important in all areas of diplomacy, economy and security, in the current serious international situation and complex global crisis,” said Minister Park Jin. “I believe that the vicious circle must be broken for the good of the population at the level of national interest – he concluded – rather than leave the strained relations without attention for a long time”.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said he appreciated South Korea’s announcement and hoped that the “political, cultural and economic ties between the two countries will deepen from now on”.