LEAD: Nishimatsu becomes 1st firm to settle all forced labor cases+

TOKYO, April 27 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING INFO)
Nishimatsu Construction Co. reached a 128 million yen settlement Monday with a
second group of wartime forced labor victims from China, becoming the first of
35 known companies involved in the practice to settle all suits filed against
it over the matter, according to lawyers.
Following a similar move last October, Nishimatsu will pay the money to a fund
for 183 workers who were engaged in construction work to build a power plant in
Niigata Prefecture, while accepting the blame for the forced labor and
apologizing to the victims.
The settlement was reached at the Tokyo Summary Court as the Tokyo-based
construction company took the procedure following a comment by the Supreme
Court calling on the parties concerned to try to agree on compensation in
finalizing a ruling against the former workers in 2007.
In October last year, Nishimatsu agreed to set up a 250 million yen fund to
compensate 360 people who were forced to work at a construction site for a
power plant in Hiroshima Prefecture and who returned home at the end of World
War II in 1945.
==Kyodo
2010-04-27 00:03:26


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