Head of Japanese broadcaster NHK puzzled by fuss over 'comfort women'
Head of broadcaster NHK said country's use of wartime ‘comfort women' a 'fact of those times'
Japan should not be singled out for criticism of the use of military brothels during the second world war, the new chairman of Japan's public broadcaster NHK was quoted as saying in remarks likely to spark widespread anger.
The comments by Katsuto Momii, who has just taken over as chairman of NHK, are also likely to become an additional diplomatic headache for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe is already faced with deteriorating ties due largely to territorial issues with China and South Korea, nations that suffered from Japanese aggression before and during the war.
Abe, who visited a controversial shrine last month that honours war criminals along with war dead, is also battling his international image as a right-wing nationalist who wants to revise Japanese history so it has a less apologetic tone.
The issue of "comfort women", as those forced to work in the wartime brothels are euphemistically known in Japan, is a flashpoint in Japan's relationship with Asian nations, especially South Korea. Many of the women forced to work in the brothels were Korean.
Asked about the issue at a news conference on Saturday, Momii said such things happened in every nation at war during that time, including France and Germany. "[The issue of] 'comfort women' is bad by today's morals," Momii was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun daily. "But this was a fact of those times."