Abe apologises for wartime sex slavery

Japanese PM seeks to defuse criticism of his denials on 'comfort women'

TOKYO - IN A bid to defuse foreign criticism of his denials that the imperial Japanese army forced women to serve as sex slaves during World War II, Mr Shinzo Abe yesterday said he was 'apologising here and now as the Prime Minister'.

Earlier this month, he had declared that there was no documentary proof to show that the government or the army had forcibly recruited thousands of mostly Asian women as 'comfort women', the Japanese euphemism for sex slaves.

'I am apologising here and now as the Prime Minister, and it is as stated in the Kono statement,' he told a parliamentary committee in answer to a query by an opposition politician.

The Kono statement of 1993 acknowledged official involvement in the management of frontline military brothels.

Mr Abe had earlier said he would not issue another apology when referring to a draft resolution in the United States Congress seeking an apology from Japan for the suffering of the sex slaves.

The Japanese leader's apology yesterday followed a stinging rebuke from the Washington Post in an editorial last Saturday that accused him of 'double talk'.

The Post noted that while Mr Abe continues to complain about North Korea refusing to move on the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang's agents, he plays down Tokyo's responsibility on the comfort women issue.

'Mr Abe has a right to complain about Pyongyang's stonewalling. What is odd - and offensive - is his parallel campaign to roll back Japan's acceptance of responsibility for the abduction, rape and sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of women during World War II,' said the Post.

'That the Japanese government has never fully accepted responsibility for their suffering or paid compensation is bad enough; that Mr Abe would retreat from previous statements is a disgrace for a leader of a major democracy.'

The Post closed its editorial with a bit of advice for the Japanese leader.

'If Mr Abe seeks international support in learning the fate of Japan's kidnapped citizens, he should straightforwardly accept responsibility for Japan's own crimes - and apologise to the victims he has slandered.'

Rebuffing the criticism, Mr Abe told reporters: '(North Korea's) abductions and the comfort women issue are a completely different matter...The issue of the abductees is an ongoing violation of human rights, while it is not as if the comfort women issue is continuing.'

Mr Abe's latest apology came amid news that a Japanese court had again rejected claims for compensation by eight Chinese nationals over slave labour in Japan during World War II.

Neither this news nor Mr Abe's apology made headlines yesterday in Japan.

The fact that Mr Abe yesterday marked six months in office also passed without much comment in the media, except for the Mainichi Shimbun daily, which noted that he had increasingly refused to take questions from reporters if the queries were not to his liking.

Yesterday, the Mainichi also published a survey conducted at the weekend which showed Mr Abe's popularity falling another point to 35 per cent from an initial 67 per cent last September shortly after he took office.

Accusations of nepotism by the Prime Minister and a series of gaffes and suspicions over dubious accounting of political funds by several ministers have apparently contributed to his sinking public support.

Still, when asked to reflect on his first six months in office, he told reporters: 'I managed to take off and am gradually shifting to reach cruising speed. I want to make determined efforts to break the sound barrier.'

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FACING UP

If Mr Abe seeks international support in learning the fate of Japan's kidnapped citizens, he should straightforwardly accept responsibility for Japan's own crimes - and apologise to the victims he has slandered.'
WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL