Wednesday, November 15, 2006

TOKYO, Japan (AFP): Japan's parliament Tuesday approved payouts of up to two million yen (17,000 dollars) each to Japanese who suffered hardship in the Dominican Republic after emigrating in the 1950s.

Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, helped citizens leave after the destruction of World War II as it struggled to feed a population that had grown with the return of Japanese from lost colonies.

Under legislation approved unanimously by the lower house, the 1,300 Japanese who remain in the Caribbean nation will be eligible for up to two million yen each, with amounts depending on individual circumstances.

The Japanese government had advertised the Dominican Republic in the 1950s as a sun-kissed paradise but emigrants, who had mostly planned to be farmers, found only stony plots of land.

Then Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who has a cousin who migrated to Brazil, offered a formal apology in July to "those who migrated and experienced great suffering".

He pledged to come up with compensation after a court said the government could not be held responsible because the statute of limitations had expired.

Some 170 plaintiffs had unsuccessfully sought in court nearly 19 million yen each from the government.

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