Japan overturns sex-slave compensation

A Japanese court has overturned the only compensation award ever made to South Korean sex slaves forced into service by Japan's army during World War II.

Hiroshima's High Court reversed a 1998 ruling by a lower court in which the Japanese government was ordered to pay 300,000 yen ($2,280) each in damages to three South Korean women.

They were part of a group of plaintiffs and had asked for a total of 564m yen ($44.3m) in compensation.

Nine court cases involving compensation claims for former sex slaves from Asian women are still pending in Japan.

Tokyo has acknowledged that its wartime army set up brothels and forced thousands of Koreans into military service, but it has refused to pay direct, or official compensation to individuals.

As many as 200,000 women, mostly Koreans but also Filipinos, Chinese and Dutch, were forced into sexual slavery during World War II.