Tokyo court rejects damages suit filed by WWII Chinese sex slaves

Eighty-three-year-old Chen Jinyu (C in front), a sex slave for Japanese soldiers in World War Two, is surrounded by reporters and supporters outside of the Tokyo High Court in Japan, March 26, 2009.

On behalf of all Chinese sex slaves for Japanese soldiers in World War Two, Chen arrived in Japan to attend the second trial at the Tokyo High Court on a suit of Chinese sex slaves in Hainan but failed in the case.

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday dismissed a suit filed by victims from China's Hainan Province seeking damages and apologies from the Japanese government for forcing them to be "comfort women" for the Japanese army during World War II.

Presiding Judge Watanabe Hitoshi gave the ruling that the individual Chinese has no right to demand compensation from Japan as the right was abandoned under the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, in which Beijing "renounced its war reparation from Japan."