A decision Friday to order a private company to pay compensation to foreign wartime forced laborers has been hailed as an indication that the nation's judiciary may be increasingly willing to favor foreigners who suffered at the hands of Japan during World War II.

In the first ruling of its kind, the Fukuoka District Court ordered Mitsui Mining Co. to pay around 165 million yen in damages to 15 Chinese men.

"It stands as a message from the country's judicial authority that both the government and private-sector companies need to take measures to redress war victims overseas," said lawyer Shogo Watanabe, who represents a separate group of former Chinese forced laborers demanding compensation.

Last year, a fund jointly set up by the German government and some 6,300 firms in Germany started paying redress to Jewish and other people, mainly from Eastern Europe, who were mobilized as forced laborers during World War II.

Friday's ruling suggests it may be time for the Japanese government and firms to take measures like the one introduced by Germany, Watanabe said.

More than 60 lawsuits have been filed by foreign war victims seeking compensation from the Japanese government or corporations. The plaintiffs include former forced laborers; former "comfort women," mostly Asian women forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers; former prisoners of war who were forced to engage in hard labor during captivity; and people from Japan's former colonies who served in the Japanese military as civilian workers but were excluded from pension benefits after the war.

About 50 of the suits are ongoing at courts nationwide. So far, government responsibility has been acknowledged in three cases.

In 1998, the Yamaguchi District Court ordered the government to pay 300,000 yen in compensation to each of three former Korean sex slaves. However, the ruling was later overturned by a higher court, and the case is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Last year, the Tokyo District Court ordered the government to pay 20 million yen to the next of kin of a former Chinese forced laborer for his suffering during the 13 years he spent as a fugitive after escaping from a Hokkaido coal mine near the end of World War II. The government has appealed the case to higher court.

The Kyoto District Court also ordered the government last year to pay 45 million yen in redress to 15 South Korean survivors of a 1945 ship explosion that killed 524 Korean forced laborers on their way home after Japan's surrender.

In 2000, Kajima Corp. agreed to set up a 500 million yen fund to compensate former Chinese workers of its labor camp in northern Japan in a settlement mediated by the Tokyo High Court.

Nippon Steel Corp. and two other companies have also reached settlements with Korean forced laborers and their families to pay compensation.

In most other cases, however, the plaintiffs had their claims rejected on the grounds that the 20-year time limit for making such claims had expired. Friday's ruling said the application of such a time limit to the case "runs counter to the principle of justice and fairness."

In many of the trials, plaintiffs based their claims on international laws, such as the International Labor Organization's ban on forced labor. But courts here often ruled that international laws do not give individuals the right to seek government redress.

The courts have also ruled that the government will not be held responsible for its actions under the Meiji Constitution, which was in effect until 1947 and absolved the government of liability for damages.

Friday's ruling by the Fukuoka court also rejected the plaintiffs' call for government compensation on the same grounds. Legal experts believe this remains the biggest barrier in the quest for winning government compensation.

"Despite such legal limitations, the courts have moved ahead of the government in demonstrating their humanitarian concern for foreign war victims," said Hiroshi Tanaka, a professor of sociology at Ryukoku University in Kyoto. Tanaka, who specializes in Japan's relations with Asia, testified during the Fukuoka trial on government documents showing the scale of wartime exploitation of Chinese forced laborers in Japan.

"Since there are limitations to what courts can do, legislative effort by lawmakers is necessary to give full redress to all foreign war victims," he said.

But the current Japanese political climate seems to be moving in the opposite direction, Tanaka said, adding it may take many court decisions like Friday's to push the Diet to launch an effort like Germany's.

According to a report believed to have been compiled by the Foreign Ministry soon after the war, 38,935 Chinese were taken to Japan as forced laborers to 135 mines, factories or construction sites operated by 35 Japanese corporations.

The report, submitted by the plaintiffs during the Fukuoka trial sessions, also says 6,830 of the Chinese laborers died in Japan.

Of the 35 companies, 20 still exist, including Mitsui Mining, which allegedly used more than 2,500 Chinese workers in Kyushu.