Victims of forced labor in Japan have opened a path to receive compensation from the Korean subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. This is because the first trial court ruled that the victims could assert the pecuniary claims that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries holds against its Korean subsidiary.
On the 18th, Lee Moon-se, Director General of the Seoul Central District Court, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in a monetary collection lawsuit filed by the family of the late Jeong Chang-hee, a victim of forced labor, against the domestic corporation MH Power Systems Korea (MH), which is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Previously, the Supreme Court ruled in November 2018 that victims of forced labor could receive compensation ranging from 100 million won to 150 million won each from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. As a result, two Mitsubishi trademarks were seized, but no Supreme Court decision has allowed them to be auctioned off to collect the money. The victims seized the pecuniary claims that Mitsubishi holds against MH based on the Supreme Court ruling, but they did not receive any money.
At that time, the South Korean government proposed a third-party compensation plan to collect corporate donations to compensate the victims, but some families rejected it and filed a lawsuit in February 2023, stating they wanted to receive money directly from the Japanese corporation. After the first trial ruling on this day, the victims' representatives told reporters, "While trademark rights require an auction process to be converted into cash, if the victims receive a judgment for pecuniary claims, they can immediately collect the money from MH." If this ruling is finalized, it will mark the first case of receiving compensation from a Japanese corporation through collection.