Central News Agency reports, according to an exclusive report by Kyodo News on July 24, Japanese company Mitsubishi Materials Corporation has decided to reconcile with Chinese workers that were forced into slave labor during WWII.

Mitsubishi will apologize and build a fund to compensate 3,765 victims RMB$ 100,000 (approximately US$ 16,000) per person. The company will also donate JPY$ 100 million (approximately US$ 800,000) to establish a monument for this event.

Kyodo News quoted sources saying this will be the largest number of victims a Japanese company has compensated after the war.

Among the 3,765 captured Chinese laborers, only 1,500 of them were found, including family members of the deceased. Mitsubishi is spending JPY$ 200 million (approximately US$ 1,600,000) to search for the missing, and the total amount of compensation expenses might reach up to JPY$ 8 billion (approximately US$ 6,400,000).

Kyodo News says, in light of the 70th anniversary of WWII, Mitsubishi’s recent apology to former captives appears to be a solution to ease their business relationship with China.

Translated by June
Edited by Olivia Yang

Sources:
UDN
Newtalk
South China Morning Post