Labourers suffer Japanese court indignity
By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-11-09 23:06

A group of Chinese who were forced to do labour by the Japanese during China's War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-45) suffered another setback in their demand for compensation when a Japanese court refused to allow Chinese lawyers to assist them in two recent trials.

According to Japan's civil procedure law, parties can be assisted when they suffer from physical or mental challenges such as poor hearing, old age or the need for professional knowledge to enable litigation to go forward.

The Chinese League of Forced Chinese Labourers in Japan has made an angry announcement accusing the Tokyo Higher Court of refusing to grant Chinese lawyers' qualifications as legal assistants for Chinese labourers in recent two lawsuits.

"Their vicious aim is to weaken the Chinese labourers' strength and push them to failure in the lawsuit," said Ma Ji, an organizer of the League.

According to the statement, the Chinese victims are all very old now and many have various physical disabilities.

Only with the help of a Chinese can they smoothly communicate with Japanese lawyers and thoroughly express their ideas to the court.

Besides, most of them are not well-educated and need a Chinese assistant to provide them Chinese as well as Japanese legal help.

However, on September 30, the Tokyo Higher Court denied their request in a second hearing of Tokyo Labour Lawsuit, in which 42 Chinese labourers had demanded 23 million yen (US$217,600) in compensation for each plaintiff from the Japanese Government and 10 Japanese businesses including Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel Corporation.

During the trial, the Tokyo Higher Court justified the Japanese Government and business' proposal to refuse to give Kang Jian, a Chinese lawyer, the right to be an assistant to the Chinese plaintiffs.

On October 20, Kang was denied that right a second time in the Niigata Labour Lawsuit when the court justified the Japanese Government's objection to a Chinese lawyer' assistantship.

Twelve former Chinese labourers, who were forced to work in Niigata during China's War of Resistance Against Japan, demanded in the lawsuit the same amount of compensation as in the Tokyo Labour Case.

Kang, who has been a litigation assistant for Chinese in nine trials, said she is indignant over the matter.

"This is an obvious injustice and abuse of power. The Tokyo Higher Court's support for the Japanese Government's groundless proposal shows that they disregard the rights of Chinese labourers," she said.

About 40,000 Chinese labourers were forced to work in Japan during China's War of Resistance Against Japan, doing hard physical labour in coal mines, factories, railways and other sites in Japan.

They started to institute lawsuits for compensation since 1995 and some Japanese courts have acknowledged the fact that Chinese plaintiffs were forced to become slave labourers at mines and other locations in Japan during the war.

Most of the claims, however, were turned down on the grounds that the statue of limitations for seeking redress under the civil code is 20 years.

In several verdicts, the Japanese courts ordered the Japanese government and private companies to pay damages to the Chinese victims who were brought to Japan as forced labourers during China's War of Resistance Against Japan.