Shanghai's maritime court has ruled Japan's second-largest shipping company, MOL, should compensate a Chinese family for the theft of two ships during World War II, reported China Daily.
Plaintiffs Chen Zhen and Chen Chun claimed that Japanese shipping company Daido, which was later acquired by MOL, retained two ships chartered from Zhongwei in 1937 after a one-year contract.
News of the court ruling came from the Chinese Association for Claiming Compensation from Japan (CACCJ) which said Mitsui OSK Lines has been ordered to pay CNY190 million (US$26 million) to Chen Zhun and Chen Chun, grandsons of the founder of Zhongwei Shipping Company, after more than 40 years of efforts to receive reparations.
The ruling, hailed by CACCJ chairman Tong Zeng as a precedent in resolving Sino-Japanese wartime disputes, marks the first time a Chinese plaintiff has won economic reparations for Japan's wartime wrongs.
"The ruling of the case represents a major step forward in the development of China's court law system," said Mr Tong.
The company owned by the two Chens' grandfather never reclaimed the ships because they were confiscated by the Japanese government and later sunk. The family first filed a suit seeking financial recompense in Tokyo in 1964, but was unsuccessful.
Undeterred, they brought the case back to Shanghai in the early 1990s, where they sought CNY2.03 billion from the Japanese defendant, Mr Tong told China Daily.
"The increasing need from Chinese individual plaintiffs to have their cases heard requires the Chinese government to improve the existing laws to allow similar cases to be lodged," he said.
"The peaceful resolution of such cases will also help promote the development of Sino-Japanese relations in that the two countries can lay down historic burdens and look into the future."
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