Japan Press Weekly

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2007 February 14 - 20 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Foreign minister calls U.S. draft resolution on ‘comfort women’ groundless

Commenting on a U.S. House of Representatives draft resolution urging the Japanese government to sincerely express remorse over the act of the Japanese military during WWII forcing “comfort women” to serve soldiers as sex slaves, Foreign Minister Aso Taro said, “This draft resolution is extremely regrettable.”

At the February 19 Lower House Budget Committee meeting, Aso said, “[The draft resolution is] not based on facts, and it fails to take into account the Japanese government’s position on the ‘comfort women’ issue.”

He even went as far as to express determination to prevent the draft resolution from being adopted. “We would like to make efforts to make our position understood,” he said.

The draft resolution, submitted in the U.S. House of Representatives by Democratic Party member Mike Honda, calls on Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to issue an apology over “the comfort women system of forced military prostitution by the Government of Japan.”

In 1993, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei issued a statement expressing “sincere apology and remorse” to the victims of the “act, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, that severely injured the honor and dignity of many women.”