A group of Japanese ruling party lawmakers is set to urge the government to water down parts of an apology it issued to Asian women used as sex slaves in military brothels during World War II, Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday.
The report came as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged Japan to stop glossing over its wartime past, including the use of sex slaves, and act to settle disputes.
The Liberal Democratic Party panel has drawn up a report on changes it wants made to the "Kono statement," a government apology issued in 1993 when Yohei Kono was chief Cabinet secretary, the Yomiuri said.
PHOTO: AFP
"The Kono statement has damaged Japan's image and invited misunderstanding of the facts and spiteful criticism of Japan," the newspaper quoted the group of LDP lawmakers as saying.
But the panel, led by former education minister Nariaki Nakayama, has given up the idea of pushing for a complete rewrite, because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he accepts the statement, the paper said.
Abe had in the past questioned the content of the statement, but has said more recently that he stands by it.
The Kono statement, issued after a year-and-a-half of research, acknowledged the role of the military and bureaucracy in coercing women, many of whom were from Korea, into sexual servitude.
The lawmakers' panel disagrees with this, the Yomiuri said.
"Women may have been taken away against their will by private concerns, but there was no kidnapping by the military or bureaucracy," the paper quoted the lawmakers' group as saying.
"All the evidence comes directly from former comfort women. No documentation has been found," the report said the group added.
A spokesman for lawmaker Nakayama's office said the text of the group's findings would not be finalized until after a meeting later in the day.
Meanwhile, in Seoul, Roh said economic and cultural links between the two countries have become strong, Roh said, and they should jointly contribute to peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia.
"We want to become a good neighbor to each other," he said in a speech marking the 88th anniversary of a peaceful mass uprising against Japanese colonial rule.
"For this purpose [Japan] should have an attitude of respecting truth in history and translate it into reality," he said.
"[Japan] should stop glorifying or justifying its wrongful past and take actions sincerely, in accordance with its conscience and internationally accepted principles."
Roh urged Japanese leaders to stop visiting the Yasukuni shrine. It should also offer an apology and compensation to women forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops, he said.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
RSS