Back in July, the South Korean high court awarded compensation workers who had been forced into working for the Japanese during the second world war. Four workers were each granted a sum of 100 million won (approx. $95,000) by a Korean high court judge to be paid by Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal, who the court ruling stated had committed “crimes against humanity by joining the Japanese government in mobilising forced labour for the sake of the war of aggression”.
This has been an issue of some controversy in Japan, particularly since the Japanese government takes the position that any claims of compensation to be paid to South Korea were resolved under the agreements surrounding the promulgation of the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between the two nations. However, it is also the case that when the treaty was signed almost fifty years ago, issues such as forced military prostitution and forced labour were not discussed; for example the first former comfort woman came forward to speak about her experiences in 1991, several decades after the claims for compensation were supposedly resolved.
In light of the Korean court’s controversial ruling, a timely public opinion survey has revealed that around 70% of respondents did not trust South Korea, while an overwhelming 79.2% said that Japan should not pay compensation. Cue inflammatory comments from the vocal internet right wing.
From MSN Sankei:
Sankei Shimbun-FNN Opinion Poll: 70% “Can’t Trust Korea”, 80% say “Don’t Pay Korea Compensation”
Recently there have been a series of judgements ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation to Koreans who were forced to work in Korea during the war; however in a joint opinion poll carried out by the Sankei Shimbun and FNN [Fuji News Network], the number of respondents who replied that Korea, Japan’s diplomatic and economic partner “can’t be trusted” reached almost 70%.
Regarding the payment of compensation, it appears that the Japanese government takes the stance that the issue had already been resolved under the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea, and the Claim Rights Agreement, which were signed at the time of normalization of relations between the two nations in Showa 40 (1965), and take the judgements of Korean courts as one factor in the cooling of Japanese-Korean relations. Japanese economic organisations such as the Keidanren voiced their concerns on November 6 that this would have a bad influence on the economic relations of both countries.
According to the results of the opinion poll, 69.3% of respondents said that Japan “couldn’t trust Korea as a diplomatic and economic partner”, while 16.8% said that Korea could be trusted. 82.7% of respondents indicated that they “could not agree” with the judgement of the Korean courts, while 5.6% said that they could. Finally, 79.2% of respondents said that “Japan should not pay compensation”.
Still, regarding calls for revision of the Kono Statement, due to the fact that no official documents have been found that corroborate the 1993 Statement, which accepted the forced recruitment of military prostitutes, 55% of survey respondents said that “I think the Kono Statement should be revised”, greatly outweighing the 27.5% of respondents who said they “didn’t think” that the statement should be revised.
Comments from Twitter:
大日本帝國:
Based on the premise that this opinion poll is accurate, I can’t accept that the fact that there are some Japanese people who actually trust South Joseon.
ルルーシュ:
We definitely can’t trust them.
It’s better that we don’t pay compensation.
NBL@金欠なう::
I wonder if the 16.8% who said that we can trust Korea are either zainichi or weird K(rap)-POP otaku?
ぷらねろ！☆31日(火)東-ノ-39b:
I mean, who can trust people who pass judgements that just violate international treaties because it suits them?
ψ(｀∇´)ψケケケ:
Really it’s 95% isn’t it? Because FNN Fuji TV’s pro-Korean inclination is included.
ep3typer:
Wonder why we’re all using “LINE” despite this?
大和たけし（伍長）:
30% are bastards who trust Korea, and 20% are bastards who think we should pay compensation. Wow, so there are even scum like that in Japan, huh. If they’re not scum, then they’re crazy weirdo spies.
林田 友宏:
Results are obvious.
team-tk (Japan):
These numbers are unbelievable, but that’s the reality at the moment. Something’s gotta change…
ホーニー岡沢なのだ！:
Even in the same opinion poll, the results in the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun were completely different!!
太郎:
Even if 100% of people had said they didn’t trust Korea it wouldn’t have been a strange result.
Comments from 2ch.net:
名前をあたえないでください：
20% are saying that compensation should be paid, so we should hurry up and pay 20% of the total sum required by Korea.
名前をあたえないでください：
Rather than saying “Don’t pay compensation”, I wish they would tell the world that “Compensation has already been paid”.
名前をあたえないでください：
There’s no reason why you would trust a country with no future.
The countdown to Korea’s downfall has begun.
名前をあたえないでください：
Way too many people who do trust Korea.
名前をあたえないでください：
You can’t even trust the Sankei Shimbun.
名前をあたえないでください：
If the survey had just been Japanese people:
Can’t trust Korea…90%
Don’t pay compensation…90%
It’s because we’ve got those shitty zainichi that the numbers are lower.
名前をあたえないでください：
Zainichi South and North Koreans, return to your homeland immediately. There is absolutely no reason for you to be Japan!
There’s no need for you to go out of your way to live in the Japan that you hate so much, is there? This is why you idiots get called dimwitted animals.
名前をあたえないでください：
Let’s make it so that even if you kill a Korean, you’ll be found innocent and paid a reward.
All the gooks will disappear in a flash.
