YONHAP NEWS

Japan said to confirm pension records of forced Korean laborers

TOKYO, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) -- The Japanese government has confirmed records of pension premiums paid by more than 4,700 Korean civilians who were forced to work for Japan during World War II, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday, a move that paves the ground for the South Korean government's compensation to them and their descendants.

   According to the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's Social Insurance Agency (SIA) has identified welfare pension fund records involving 4,727 forced Korean laborers in the final years of Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and offered the list to the South Korean government through Japan's Foreign Ministry.

   The Korean laborers were forcibly mobilized to work for various Japanese firms in Japan during World War II.

   The unprecedented move by SIA came after the South Korean government demanded several months ago that Tokyo check past records for some 40,000 Koreans who were allegedly forced into labor during wartime.

   During its 1910-45 colonial rule, Tokyo forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work in coal mines and military facilities in and around the country to support its war efforts.

   South Korea established the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under the Japanese Imperialism in 2004 to investigate forced labor and conscription during the Japanese colonial rule, and has since given 20 million won (US$17,000) in compensation to the bereaved families of each of the victims. The surviving forced laborers were also paid 800,000 won each.

   According to the commission, nearly 160,000 people have reported that they were forced to work in coal mines and factories in Japan, but nearly 90 percent of them failed to receive the compensation due to lack of supporting evidence.

   The forced Korean laborers who have been newly confirmed by SIA are likely to receive state compensation from the South Korean government.

   However, it is still uncertain whether all of the 4,727 Koreans will be able to claim their welfare pension refunds from the Japanese government, as SIA said it did not investigate how long the Koreans had maintained the pension, the newspaper said.

   The South Korean government has said that it will continue to search for records of some 120,000 Koreans' pension premium payments, as such documents are evidence of their forced labor.

   Last week, Japan triggered a controversy after paying a mere 99 yen (US$1.08) in its welfare pension refund to each of seven South Korean women who were forced to work for a Japanese company during World War II. It was criticized for failing to reflect the inflationary value of the amount the Koreans had originally paid.

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