Japan "Requisitioned laborers are not forced labor" ... "They came to Japan through various routes" = UN
The Japanese government said at the United Nations in January that the issue of former forced labor was "difficult to see as a case of 'forced labor', which is prohibited under international agreements, because the routes through which workers came into Japan varied."

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap News on March 6th (local time), the Japanese government announced at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council held at the United Nations Geneva office on January 31st that the Korean Peninsula "It is difficult to simply explain how the civilian workers from Japan came to Japan."

The Japanese government said, "At that time, there are possibility that there were workers who came to Japan voluntarily, and workers who were forced to work by governmental Arrangement or requisition. We don't take these workers as 'forced labor' as stipulated in international labor agreements."

The UPR is a system in which the 193 United Nations member states discuss their own human rights situation and the implementation of recommendations, and has been in force since 2008.

"When Japan's human rights situation was being deliberated by other member countries, when a question was raised about former forced laborers, Japan said, It cannot be seen as a thing," they said.

Convention No. 29 of 1930 by the International Labor Organization (ILO) contains the content of "abolition of all forms of forced labor". Japan also ratified the agreement in 1932.

However, the Japanese government appears to have argued that it did not violate international agreements, arguing that voluntary labor participation and labor in times of emergency such as war are considered exceptions to forced labor.

This is also linked to the logic that "it is difficult to conclude that South Korea's former forced laborers were victims of illegal acts by the former Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi, and others."
2023/03/08 09:51 KST