The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal by a group of Chinese women seeking damages from the government for having been repeatedly raped by Imperial army soldiers during Japan's wartime occupation of China.
The decision by presiding Justice Osamu Tsuno of the top court's No. 2 Petty Bench made final rejections by lower courts of the 10 plaintiffs' demand for 200 million yen in damages to compensate the women from Shanxi Province. The plaintiffs included relatives of victims who have died.
The Tokyo District Court ruled in April 2003 and the Tokyo High Court last March that the women, who were in their teens and 20s at the time, were repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers from 1940 to 1944 in their homes and at army garrisons, to which they were taken by force.
The lower courts, however, dismissed the damage claims, saying the state is not required to pay redress for such conduct under the prewar Constitution.
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