TOKYO Japan's highest court Friday rejected compensation claims by former wartime sex slaves and forced laborers from China, but acknowledged that they had been coerced by the Japanese military or industry.

The landmark decisions were handed down as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to head off a resolution on Japan's wartime sex slavery in the U.S. House in a two-day visit to Washington.

It was the first time Japan's Supreme Court had ruled on lawsuits by Japan's mostly Chinese and Korean captives during World War II, effectively quashing dozens of similar cases in lower courts.

The court said in both cases that the Chinese plaintiffs had lost their rights to seek individual legal claims against the Japanese government and companies because of a 1972 joint statement in which Beijing renounced war reparations from Japan.

But in a rebuke to nationalist politicians who have tried to play down Japan's wartime crimes, the court acknowledged the historical facts of sex slavery and forced labor, practices that continue to fuel anger in Asia.

In its ruling in a sex-slavery case, the court acknowledged Japanese soldiers had abducted two teenage Chinese girls and forced them to work as sex slaves for months, contradicting Abe's recent denial of the practice.

Historians have estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 women from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese military during the war.

TOKYO After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in forced wartime prostitution after historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered documents showing government involvement.

That led to an official — though carefully worded — apology in 1993, and the establishment of a nongovernment fund to pay the women limited reparations.

But right-wing politicians have renewed efforts to roll back the apology. They contend the women were professional prostitutes paid for their services and say Japanese commanders were not directly responsible for setting up brothels.

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