Dow Jones reports that a Japanese court this week rejected a lawsuit seeking compensation for 45 Chinese men forced to work as slave laborers at coal mines in Japan during World War II.
The Fukuoka District Court dismissed the suit brought by the men seeking a total Y1.035 billion in compensation from Mitsui Mining Company, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and the Japanese government.
The plaintiffs had also demanded that an apology be published in major newspapers in Japan and China.
The laborers were brought to Fukuoka from Chinese provinces including Hebei and worked without getting paid at Mitsui Miike mine and Mitsubishi Iizuka mine between 1943 and 1945, according to Hajime Matsuoka, one of lawyers representing the group.
