Japan repeats apology for WW II sex slaves

TOKYO: Japan, under diplomatic fire for appearing to sidestep responsibility for forcing women to act as wartime sex slaves for its soldiers, said on Wednesday that the government stood by a 1993 apology acknowledging coercion.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stirred anger in China, Taiwan and South Korea with remarks last week appearing to question the state's role in forcing the mostly Asian women to act as prostitutes during World War II, although he also said the earlier apology stood.

The apology, known as the 'Kono Statement' after then-chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono, in whose name it was issued, acknowledged the Japanese military's role in setting up and running wartime brothels as well the fact that many of the women were taken to and kept in the brothels against their will.

"The government stands by the Kono Statement, including its recognition of coercion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference.

"Recent comments by the prime minister show this stance will not change."

Abe touched off additional protests when he said on Monday that Japan would not apologise again over the sex slave issue even if US lawmakers adopt a resolution calling for an apology.

The non-binding resolution introduced by US Congressman Michael Honda, a California Democrat, calls on Japan to unambiguously apologise for the tragedy that thousands of Asian women, many Korean, endured at the hands of its Imperial Army.

South Korea has expressed outrage over Abe's remarks and on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing urged Japan to confront its past on the topic and accept responsibility while Taiwan called on Japan to apologise and compensate the women.

Elderly South Korean women who had served as 'comfort women,' Japan's euphemism for wartime sex slaves, protested on Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, while in Tokyo members of a women's group gathered near parliament to lambast Abe's remarks and show solidarity with the victims.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, visiting Seoul on Tuesday, noted that Japan had apologised in the past.

But an editorial in the New York Times blasted Tokyo for what it termed 'efforts to contort the truth,' an attack that was featured on Japanese news programmes.

Shiozaki sought to allay concern that Abe's refusal to apologise again contradicted the spirit of the 1993 statement.   

"Parts of the resolution are not based on objective fact, and it does not include what the government has done up to now, so that's why the prime minister has said Japan will not apologise again, a view that does not contradict the statement at all," he said, adding that the intensifying debate was not constructive.

"The longer this discussion goes on, the more misunderstandings there are likely to be," Shiozaki said.

Abe, who wants to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution and restore a sense of pride in the nation's past, upset core conservative supporters when he softened his stance on wartime history after taking office last September.

That shift was generally seen as an effort to smooth the way for summits with China and South Korea to improve ties that had chilled under his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.

Analysts have said Abe's recent comments were intended to bolster his core conservative support at a time when his popularity ratings among voters generally have slumped.

"There is no evidence to back up that there was coercion as defined initially," he told reporters on Thursday, apparently referring to accusations that the Imperial Army had kidnapped women and put them in brothels to serve soldiers.

Abe told parliament on Monday that there seemed to have been some cases of coercion, such as by middlemen, but he said that officials had not broken into peoples' homes and kidnapped women.

Some experts agree that not all or even most of the women were physically coerced, but they say that does not absolve the Japanese government of responsibility for their suffering.