The Tokyo High Court ruled on Wednesday that four Chinese women seeking compensation from the Japanese government had in fact been forced to serve as sex slaves to the Japanese military during World War II. But it also ruled that they were not entitled to compensation for the government's acts at that time.

The plaintiffs and their lawyers said the ruling is unjust and they will appeal to Japan's Supreme Court.

Li Xiumei, 77, and three others filed the lawsuit since 1995 with the Tokyo District Court, seeking compensation of 23 million yen (US$219,000) each. The lower court rejected the case on May 30, 2001.

Presiding Judge Makoto Nemoto handed down the High Court's written decision but did not read it aloud in court.

The court found that the Japanese military did set up wartime brothels in China and that the four plaintiffs, when they were aged 15 to 20, were forced by the military into brothels in northeast China's Shanxi Province. They were confined there and repeatedly raped between 1942 and 1944.

But he rejected their claims for compensation, saying that Japan "has no responsibility to pay compensation for any acts committed by state authorities under the Meiji Constitution." The Meiji Constitution was replaced after Japan's defeat in World War II by its current constitution.

The court also ruled against the plaintiffs on the grounds that the 20-year statute of limitations had expired.

"It cannot be denied that the four continue to be seriously affected and that (state) immunity would contradict the principles of justice and fairness," Nemoto was quoted as saying by Kyodo News. However, he indicated that the statute of limitations prevailed.

Japanese courts have rejected numerous similar cases on the grounds that the 20-year period for demanding compensation had expired.

On a more positive note, according to the Japan Times the court also ruled that the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communiqué does not prohibit individual Chinese victims from exercising their rights to seek damages. This is a turnaround from earlier decisions in which the High Court said that wartime compensation issues had been settled by international and bilateral treaties since the end of the war.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2004)