Japan’s top government spokesman said on Thursday that Tokyo would consider re-examining a 20-year-old study that led to a landmark apology over its forced prostitution in the second world war.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was responding to an ultra-conservative opposition lawmaker who said there was no such thing as sex slavery – an emotional issue for women wartime victims across Asia.
Suga said that Japan would consider verifying the authenticity of the interviews with 16 South Korean women who said they were forced to serve as prostitutes for Japan’s wartime military.
The remark underscores the longstanding revisionist views and doubts over the victims’ accounts, and would certainly further escalate already strained relations between Japan and South Korea.
The interviews were conducted by Japanese government officials in Seoul at the request of South Korea’s government and were key to Japan’s 1993 statement and apology later that year.
The statement, issued by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, acknowledged many women were forced into prostitution for Japan’s wartime military despite the lack of records clearly showing the Japanese government’s systematic involvement.
