Shanxi police have not yet agreed to issue passports for two Chinese comfort women to travel to Japan and plead their case for compensation, mainland campaigner Tong Zeng says.
The two women, Li Xiumei and Chen Lintao , both from the central China province, want to give evidence in a hearing in Tokyo next month.
Although applications were made over a year ago, police had not yet agreed to issue the documents, Mr Tong said.
Ms Li and Ms Chen, both in their 70s, are among five Chinese comfort women - sex slaves used by Japanese soldiers during World War II - suing the Japanese Government for compensation.
According to Mr Tong, the other three women were too weak to make the trip to Tokyo.
'We are still working on it,' Mr Tong said yesterday. 'It will be a boost to the case if they can tell their stories in court instead of relying on Japanese lawyers to argue for them using photographs and affidavits.' Although there is no official tally of the number of comfort women in China, Mr Tong believes the Japanese army forced more than 100,000 women to become sex slaves.
He said it was the responsibility of the Japanese Government to pay compensation. A government-initiated fund set up last year did not satisfy their demands.