The Tokyo District Court on Friday rejected a compensation lawsuit over the state's refusal to give unpaid wages to the relatives of Korean laborers forced to work in Japan during World War II.
The lawsuit was filed by the families of four Korean forced laborers who died at Japan Iron & Steel Co.'s Kamaishi plant in Iwate Prefecture during an air raid in 1945. The firm is now called Nippon Steel Corp.
The families had sought damages of 20 million yen per worker in response to a refusal to pay the wages by the Morioka Regional Legal Affairs Bureau, which had been entrusted with the unpaid wages.