Lawsuit Filed by Former Comfort Women against the Government of Japan

In 2021, former South Korean comfort woman Lee Yong-soo and others filed a damages suit at the Tokyo District Court under case number Reiwa 3 (Wa) 101. The plaintiffs sought compensation from the Japanese government for the systematic sexual enslavement they endured during Japan's colonial rule. They argued that the 1965 bilateral claims agreement did not waive individual rights to reparation for crimes against humanity. The case embodied the long-standing diplomatic rift between Japan and South Korea over wartime atrocities, testing whether Japanese courts would depart from the prevailing state immunity doctrine and address individual claims for historical human rights violations.

The Tokyo District Court dismissed the lawsuit, affirming state immunity and holding that the 1965 bilateral agreement extinguished all individual compensation rights. The court declined to pierce the sovereign veil, ruling that international law did not compel an exception for gross human rights abuses.

The central legal dispute was whether Japan’s sovereign immunity barred the comfort women’s compensation claims. The plaintiffs contended that jus cogens violations, such as sexual slavery, override state immunity, while the Japanese government maintained that any individual claims were fully and finally settled by the 1965 Agreement on the Settlement of Problems Concerning Property and Claims and Economic Cooperation between Japan and South Korea.

The dismissal deepened frustration among surviving comfort women and human rights advocates, straining Japan–South Korea relations. It reignited public debate on the adequacy of the 2015 bilateral comfort women agreement and prompted renewed international calls for a victim-centered approach to historical justice. Civil society organizations used the verdict to lobby for universal jurisdiction and further condemnation of Japan’s wartime conduct.