The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down appeals by 22 Chinese plaintiffs in two separate suits seeking damages for their suffering caused by poisonous gas munitions left behind by the Imperial Japanese Army in China at the end of World War II.
Justice Tokiyasu Fujita, presiding over the top court's Third Petty Bench, ruled against the Chinese victims and their family members, denying the responsibilities of the Japanese government.
In September 2003, the Tokyo District Court handed down a landmark ruling that ordered the government to pay some ¥190 million in compensation in one of the two suits.
The district court said Japan "could have provided information and enabled the Chinese government to dispose of the weapons more speedily and safely" even though the weapons were out of reach of its sovereign power after the war.
But the decision was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in July 2007, which said it "cannot acknowledge a strong probability that the Japanese government could have prevented the incidents."
The high court said, however, it expects the government to adopt "fair remedies based on a comprehensive political judgment" for the victims.
In the other case, the damages claim had been rejected by both district and high courts.
Of the Chinese victims, some suffered aftereffects from inhaling poisonous gas at construction sites in Heilongjiang Province, and others when a shell abandoned by the Japanese military exploded. The incidents occurred between 1950 and the 1990s, according to the high court.
Attorneys for the Chinese plaintiffs said two similar damages suits are pending at the Tokyo District Court.