Over the past four months, the South Korean judiciary has handed down a series of rulings ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation to Koreans who were forced to labor for them during World War II.
In July, the high courts in Seoul and Busan handed down such rulings against Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, respectively.
On Nov. 1, the district court in Gwangju ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay 680 million won (about ¥63 million) in compensation to a woman forced to labor at the company's munitions factory in Nagoya and to four bereaved family members.