A Berlin district ordered a local Korean organisation to remove a statue commemorating women used as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II. The central borough’s mayor said the statue goes beyond what had been approved.

Japan reacted angrily on July 28, 2020, to a pair of newly erected statues in South Korea. One of the statues appears to depict Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kneeling and bowing to a “comfort woman”. The term refers to women mainly from Korea, but also the Philippines, China and other East Asian countries who were sex slaves serving Japan’s military in World War II. Tokyo has warned Seoul that it would be an “unforgivable” breach of international protocol, if it proves to be true that the statue was meant to depict the Japanese leader.