NON-EXECUTIVE director Yukio Okamoto disclosed yesterday that huge transnational Mitsubishi Materials hopes to apologise to former British, Dutch and Australian prisoners forced to work in Mitsubishi mines and factories.

The company also intends to reach an amicable solution with Chinese forced labourers, following a landmark apology to US prisoners earlier this week.

“If there is such an opportunity, we will do the same apology,” he said, admitting that prisoners brought to Japan during the second world war had been subjected to inexcusable working conditions.

“What other companies will do, we don’t know … Ours is one of those who tortured PoWs most, so we have to apologise,” he said.

The former diplomat was among company officials who delivered an apology to surviving US PoWs and family members on Sunday in Los Angeles.

Chinese slave labourers sent to work in Japan and their descendants are suing Mitsubishi for financial compensation in China.