Japan Press Weekly

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2012 August 22 - 28 [HISTORY]

Osaka mayor disclaims forced recruitment of ‘comfort women’

Regarding wartime sex slavery of the so-called comfort women issue, Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru on August 21 at a press conference said, “There is no concrete evidence to prove coercion.”

The mayor added, “There might have been comfort stations, but there is no evidence that the women who worked there were taken to the place from Korea under threat or compulsion by the Imperial Japanese military. If such any evidence exists, the South Korean government should present it.”

In 1993, the Japanese government published a statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei admitting the fact that in many cases, comfort women “were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.”

Hashimoto also said, “Imperial Japan’s system of ‘comfort women’ is ethically questionable from today’s viewpoint. However, we need to discuss squarely how it was regarded at that time.”