Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under fire abroad for denying government involvement in forcing women to serve as wartime sex slaves, said yesterday that he was "apologizing here and now as the prime minister."
Abe said earlier this month there was no proof Japan's government or army kidnapped women to work as "comfort women," as the wartime sex slaves are known in Japan.
Abe has also said he stood by a 1993 apology known as the "Kono Statement" that acknowledged official involvement in the brothels. But he has said there would be no new apology even if US lawmakers adopted a resolution seeking one.
"I am apologizing here and now as the prime minister, and it is as stated in the Kono Statement," Abe told a parliamentary committee in response to a question by an opposition lawmaker.
The prime minister's earlier comments denying official involvement in kidnapping women, mostly Asian, to work in the wartime brothels have angered Seoul and risked straining ties with Washington, where US Congressman Michael Honda has introduced a resolution calling for Japan to make an unambiguous apology for the suffering of the sex slaves.
A group of eight Chinese people seeking compensation for slave labor in Japan in World War II had their case rejected by a regional court yesterday.
The Miyazaki District Court acknowledged that the state and a Japanese company should have been obliged to compensate the eight, but it said the 20-year statute of limitations for bringing such a case had expired, Kyodo news agency said.
The eight plaintiffs had demanded the Japanese government and Mitsubishi Materials Corp pay compensation totalling about ¥184 million (US$1.56 million).
In a separate lawsuit earlier this month, the Tokyo High Court overturned a landmark ruling ordering the Japanese government and a company to compensate Chinese former forced laborers.
Public support for Abe's government has sunk to 35 percent, a poll showed yesterday as the hawkish young premier marked a difficult six months in office.
Approval rating
The Cabinet's approval rating has slumped from 67 percent shortly after he took office in late September, dropping one percentage point from last month alone, the Mainichi newspaper reported.
It was the first time that the Mainichi poll has shown such a poor approval rating for Abe, however other polls have shown even lower support.
The Cabinet's disapproval rating hit 42 percent, against 16 percent in September, according to the survey of 1,073 voters.
Abe, who at 52 is Japan's youngest post-war prime minister, took over from the popular Junichiro Koizumi in September and quickly made breakthroughs in improving ties with China and South Korea.
Soured relations
But relations have soured again recently over the issue of wartime sex slaves, and Abe has been plagued by gaffes and scandals among his aides.
His decision to readmit party rebels expelled in a reform drive by Koizumi also failed to impress many voters.
Reflecting on his first six months in office, Abe likened his performance to a airliner.
"I managed to take off and am gradually shifting to reach cruising speed. I want to make determined efforts to break the sound barrier," he told reporters.
Japan holds national elections in July which are considered fraught with risk for the young premier.
Abe has pledged to serve out a full six years to carry out his ultimate goal -- rewriting the US-imposed 1947 Constitution that forced Japan into pacifism.
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