Japanese War Reparation
Private International Law

In the first Chinese court judgment relating to the Nanking Massacre, a Nanjing court held two Japanese authors liable to pay 800,000 yuan each to a survivor of the Massacre for claiming that she fabricated her account of the atrocity. Chinese activists believe that the case set a precedent for civilians seeking war reparation against Japan in the Chinese domestic courts. The plaintiff's lawyers admitted that enforcement of the judgment would be difficult. The Japanese publishers, co-defendants in the case, rejected the judgment, calling it "a challenge to our country's freedom of speech in the guise of a trial." A Tokyo court will hear the dispute in September.

See previous post.