A Tokyo court has rejected a claim for compensation against the Japanese government by former prisoners of war from the Netherlands.

The Dutch prisoners were forced into slave labour during the Second World War.

One woman in the case had been forced into prostitution for Japanese soldiers.

The judge said the group had suffered but that individuals could not sue the state for damages.

A similar ruling was made last week in a case brought by another group of former prisoners, several of them British.

The Japanese government says all compensation claims were settled under the peace treaty of 1951.