Osaka mayor sticks to noxious comments on comfort women

Posted on : 2013-05-28 06:14 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Prominent politician Toru Hashimoto did retract controversial comments on soldiers and brothels in Japan
 May 26. The two women are currently touring Japan
May 26. The two women are currently touring Japan

By Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent

Toru Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, took back his suggestion that US military forces in Japan make use of houses of prostitution. However, he did not retract his rash remarks that the so-called comfort women, or women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese, were necessary during wartime.

According to Japanese media reports released on May 26, Hashimoto appeared on TV on May 25 where he apologized to the US and to the American people for his remarks and expressed his desire to retract them. Early in May, the Japanese politician had suggested to the commander of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa that US soldiers could patronize brothels to satisfy their sexual desires.

Hashimoto also apologized for the controversy that the remarks in question had caused and indicated his desire to retract them at a May 25 meeting of the leadership of the Japan Restoration Party in Tokyo.

Making reference to the frequent sexual assaults on female soldiers occurring inside the US military and the sexual crimes committed by US soldiers in Okinawa, Hashimoto explained that he had made the remarks in an effort to make the point that it was necessary to work hard to eliminate sexual crimes.

Hashimoto has yet to retract the offensive remarks made at a press conference on May 13 that comfort women were necessary for soldiers during the war. Remarking that he was resigned to being criticized for his controversial remarks about comfort women, Hashimoto reiterated the same position. “Japan is not the only country that should be criticized,” he said. “Instead, we need to turn our attention to the history of every country that has used women on the battlefield.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan has invited Hashimoto to hold a press conference on May 27, where he is planning to explain his remarks.

On May 26, the Tokyo Shimbun reported that the leadership of the Japan Restoration Party is worried that, if Hashimoto’s remarks are taken to mean that the party is moving further toward the right, it may well mean the end of the party.

 

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