The Japanese government is known to have believed in the 1960s that Koreans forced to work under Japanese colonial rule were eligible for individual compensation despite a government-level deal signed in 1965.

Documents of the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Tokyo understood at the time of the signing of the 1965 bilateral treaty that it covered only government-level compensation, not individual claims.

The documents were written around the signing of the treaty and obtained by a Japanese civil organization in 2008.

Japanese judicial authorities have not recognized the right to demand compensation by Korean victims on an individual level. Their official stance is that compensation was settled through the treaty.

Under the agreement, Korea received 800 million U.S. dollars in grants and loans from Japan as compensation for Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.