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In relation to the fact that the Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) presented to the 91st Session of the International Labor Conference indicates its concern about the attitude of the Government of Japan failing to meet the expectations of victims of military “comfort women” and industrial forced labor during the Second World War, the ZENROREN delegation to the Conference made public its position on this issue, of which the text is as follows:

ZENROREN notes that the Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) presented to the 91st Session of the International Labor Conference indicates its concern about the attitude of the Government of Japan failing to meet the expectations of victims of military “comfort women” and industrial forced labor during the Second World War and asks to be kept informed.

ZENROREN supports that many trade unions in Asia and the world, including the Republic of Korea, demand the Government of Japan to express its formal apologies and compensation for these acts as they trample upon human dignity from its very foundation and violate the ILO Convention No. 29.

Although more than half a century has passed since the end of the War, the Government has neither recognized the last war as a war of aggression nor made state apologies. As for compensations for the victims of wartime sexual slavery, the Government depends on “the Asian Women’s Funds” contributed by recompense from private individuals, so as to evade its responsibility. It is unacceptable that the Government, notwithstanding, takes its attitude that the issues have already been settled.

ZENROREN notes that the judgment delivered on 4 December 2001 by the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery states that no statute of limitation run out for the crimes against humanity indicted at the Tribunal, and recognizes in its conclusion that the state responsibility should be applicable and the Government of Japan is responsible for the damages caused by Japan’s military sexual slavery and added by its continuous default on an obligation thus generated thereafter.

Regarding the wartime forcible conscription and industrial forced labour, too, on the trials filed by these victims for apologies and compensatory damages, several defendant companies accepted conciliatory settlements and successive court judgments were given in plaintiffs’ favor to order the government and the companies concerned to pay compensation, so that an understanding about the “joint unlawful acts by the Government and corporations” has been well established.

On these issues, the CEACR in its reports has repeatedly urged the Government to take measures satisfactory to the victims. ZENROREN fully supports the position of the Committee and demands the Government to take immediate necessary steps. At the same time, it wishes constructive deliberations necessary for the solution of the issue to take place at the ILO in the light of the objectives embodied in the ILO Constitution and the Declaration of Philadelphia.

Now in Japan, the Diet at its current session is deliberating the wartime bills, which would enable Japan to send its Self-Defense Forces everywhere of the world with the aim of cooperating with the United States for its war and to mobilize the Japanese citizenry to war preparations in such fields as construction, transport, medical treatment and others.

The Koizumi Administration of Japan, under which the government authorized through its screening a history textbook for junior high schools beautifying the last war of aggression and the Prime Minister Koizumi himself has paid homage every year since its inauguration at the Yasukuni Shrine which enshrines the war criminals, now openly plots to revise the peaceful and war-renouncing Constitution so as to open a way to exercise the rights of collective self-defense.

The dark history of Japan’s aggressive war, which was a root-cause of the violation of the ILO Convention No. 29, should never be repeated.

It is our strong conviction that Japan will never occupy an honorable position in the international community unless the Government changes such an attitude. ZENROREN is resolved to do its utmost to realize a peaceful and democratic Japan and for world peace in cooperation and solidarity with workers and their unions of the world. (End)