More on the Japanese-Korean "trade" dispute

JTBC News has done some remarkable reporting on the ongoing "trade dispute" between Japan and Korea. The trade dispute was triggered by President Abe's response the South Korean Supreme Court judgement on private Korean claims based upon Japan's slave labor war crimes in Korea.

Yesterday's news program described how the Japanese foreign ministry had been pressuring the executive branch of the South Korean government to interfere in the judicial administration of the ongoing slave labor claims in South Korean courts at the Blue House (presidential) level. The unlawful interference in judicial administration by the prior pro-Japanese Park administration violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers. The interference by Japan started about six years ago, so it's nothing new. Unfortunately, they succeeded in influencing former president Park Geun Hye to interfere in progress of the litigation by getting the judicial branch to delay the outcomes of pending litigation unfavorable to the Japanese wartime legacy corporations for years. During this delay some of the few remaining living claimants died.

(Source- JTBC News 7.29) Title Japan from six years earlier...pressure on slave labor decision confirmed. Japan interference in sovereignty, ...encroachment on jurisdiction, full story. Former Cabinet Executive Director Pak Jun Oo, "If the court's latest decision becomes public there is going to be chaos; we need to contact the high court and delay the decision." Former President Park Geun Hye, "foreign ministry is the responsible department, if they make arrangements I guess it will be alright."

Today's JTBC news offered some statements by Japanese attorneys regarding the alleged authority under international law for the 1965 Agreement between Japan and Korea relied upon by the Abe government to dispute private domestic claims for injury based upon the war crimes of Japanese corporations against Korean individuals forced into slave labor during WWII. The Korean Supreme Court recently upheld the validity of such claims against the Japanese argument. In essence, the 1965 agreement was held only to apply to indemnity claims for damages due to otherwise lawful activities. The agreement does not bar compensation claims based upon personal injury due to unlawful war crimes upon individual claimants so injured.

(Source- JTBC News July 30) Japanese lawyer Jaima Hidekazi stated " private rights of claimants cannot be extinguished by the agreement of two governments."

The former president of the Japanese Bar Association, Utsunomiya Kenji, noted that the rights of Chinese victims of Japanese wartime forced labor were ruled valid by the Japanese Supreme Court in 2007. A third Japanese attorney, Fujida Masatosi, interviewed by JTBC on the program, has started a petition thus far signed by 3000 Japanese including 12 lawyers which calls for the removal of trade restraints recently imposed by Japan in retaliation for the Korean forced labor litigation decisions. The program noted that 58 percent of the Japanese surveyed in a poll supported proposed Japanese trade restraints against South Korea.

(Source- JTBC News July 30) Utsunomiya Kenji, former head of the Japanese Bar Association, "In 2007 the Japanese highest court also ruled that the private lawsuits of Chinese slave labor victims to compensation were not extinguished."

(Source- JTBC News July 30) Attorney Fujida Masatosi, Saying that colonization was legal in those days under international law. Who made that law? Naturally, the 1965 Claims agreement must be reexamined.

Masatosi also asked why does the Abe government fail to refer the 2007 decision by the Japanese high court recognizing the legitimacy of Chinese slave labor claims. Of course, it weakens not only Japan's arguments but also the LDP appeal to anti- Korean public sentiment in Japan. Japan's stated position on the connected slave labor issues is regarded as duplicitous. In one situation, China, Japan acknowledges its war crimes, in the other, Korea, it doesn't. Abe's LDP party failed in the July 21 elections to achieve the necessary two thirds majority in the Upper House to ratify an amendment to the Japanese constitution to remove limits on military activities to self defense. Currently, Abe is manipulating this trade dispute, falsely based upon national security claims with South Korea, in order to generate more support among politicians from third parties to so amend the constitution to remove checks on Japan's military powers.

(Source- JTBC News July 30) Attorney Fujida Masatosi, It will be easier to amend the Japanese constitution in favor of security by armed force if the relationship with South Korea worsens.