Japan Dismisses Comfort Women Lawsuit

A Japanese court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit filed against Japan by eight Chinese women who were forced to be “comfort women” for Japanese troops during WW II. The decision acknowledged that the troops had confined, beat, and raped the women, but denied them compensation on the ground that the 20-year period for demanding such compensation had expired.

Seven other lawsuits filed in Japan have met a similar fate, although two are still pending in the Supreme Court of Japan. The DC Circuit has also rejected a comfort-women lawsuit filed against Japan, holding that Japan has absolute immunity from such suits in US courts.

Historians believe that Japanese troops forced up to 200,000 women – mostly Koreans, Filipinos, Chinese and Dutch – into sex slavery during World War II. Last year, Chinese historian Su Zhiliang found that Shanghai alone had 149 “comfort women houses” during the war.