Photo/Illutration Lee Yong-su, a former “comfort woman,” attends a news conference on Nov. 23 in Seoul after the Seoul High Court ordered the Japanese government to pay compensation. (Narumi Ota)

A Seoul High Court ruling that orders Japan to compensate former “comfort women” will likely be ignored by Tokyo and probably won’t strain bilateral relations, Japanese officials said.

This is largely because Tokyo-Seoul ties have greatly improved since Yoon Suk-yeol became South Korean president last year, the officials said.

The high court ordered the Japanese government to compensate one former comfort woman and bereaved family members of other wartime comfort women. The court said amount of compensation should be 200 million won (about 23 million yen or $154,000) to each comfort woman. There were 16 plaintiffs in total.

The decision overturned a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit over “sovereign immunity,” which under international law means a government cannot face trial in an overseas court of law.

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa issued a statement that said the high court ruling “was extremely regrettable” for not recognizing sovereign immunity.

The ruling will likely be finalized because the Japanese government will not appeal since it maintains its position on sovereign immunity.

Based on this stance, the government has not participated in any trial in South Korea regarding compensation for wartime comfort women.

In January 2021, the Seoul Central District Court ordered Japan to pay compensation to former comfort women in a different lawsuit.

Tokyo has ignored that order.

“We will likely take a similar response this time,” a source in the prime minister’s office said.

Although such court rulings in the past have sparked heated exchanges between the two governments, the Yoon administration has eased the friction through a foundation established in March 2023.

The South Korean Supreme Court has ordered Japanese companies to pay compensation to Korean wartime laborers, and the foundation is designed to cover those costs.

As a result, exchanges between the two nations over a wide range of areas, such as national security, business and culture, have increased.

“We have created the present positive trend together with the South Korean government,” a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said, adding that the latest ruling is unlikely to become a barrier.

Still, the Yoon administration could face a public backlash if the opposition party increases its criticism that the government is letting Japan off the hook over wartime issues.

After the high court ruling, Lee Yong-su, 94, the only surviving former comfort woman among the plaintiffs, held a news conference in the South Korean capital.

“Japan should express a heartfelt apology and provide legal compensation to the plaintiffs,” she said.

Kamikawa plans to visit South Korea from Nov. 25 for a meeting with her counterparts from South Korea and China.

She is expected to explain Japan’s fundamental stance that all wartime compensation issues had been settled with the agreement reached in 1965 when diplomatic relations were normalized between the two nations.

But sources said Kamikawa would take pains not to aggravate the situation.

(This article was written by Narumi Ota in Seoul and Anri Takahashi in Tokyo.)

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