Japan Press Weekly

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2007 February 28 - March 6 [HISTORY]

Abe says his government will not apologize for ‘comfort women’ issue

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo at the March 5 Upper House Budget Committee meeting stated, “We will not make an apology” for the wartime “comfort women” issue, even if the U.S. Congress passes a resolution calling on the Japanese government to do so.

He went on to say that the draft resolution submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives “is not based on objective facts.”

Abe reaffirmed that the government inherits the basic position of the 1993 Kono statement acknowledging the involvement of the Japanese military in forcing foreign women into sexual servitude during WWII.

He said however, “There was no coercion in such a way that military officials broke into houses and took women away, behaving as kidnappers.”

The prime minister also said, “I do not think having discussions [on this question] in the Diet is productive.”