Japan govt distances itself from NHK head's 'comfort women' remark

In this archived photo, former Taiwanese "comfort woman" Chen Lien Hua stands in front of a poster for Korean American artist Lee Chang-jin's "Comfort Women Wanted" exhibition in Taipei on December 9, 2013. The exhibition, on display between December
In this archived photo, former Taiwanese "comfort woman" Chen Lien Hua stands in front of a poster for Korean American artist Lee Chang-jin's "Comfort Women Wanted" exhibition in Taipei on December 9, 2013. The exhibition, on display between December 10, 2013 to February 16, 2014, highlights the plight of women who were systematically exploited as sex slaves by the Japanese army in Asia during World War II.  On Monday, Tokyo distanced itself from comments by the new head of national broadcaster NHK, who said the Imperial Army's system of wartime sex slavery was not unique to Japan.-- PHOTO: AFP

TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo on Monday distanced itself from comments by the new head of national broadcaster NHK, who said the Imperial Army's system of wartime sex slavery was not unique to Japan.

Mr Katsuto Momii said on Saturday that the practice of forcibly drafting women into military brothels during World War II was "common in any country at war".

"Can we say there were none in Germany or France? It was everywhere in Europe," he told an inaugural press conference, according to local media reports.

His comments came the day before the death in Seoul of Hwang Kum Ja, aged 90, leaving just 55 South Korean former "comfort women" alive.

Mr Hwang Woo Yea, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party said: "Japan must bear in mind that it will forever go down in history as an unapologetic perpetrator when all the victims pass away."

The Japanese government on Monday moved to insulate itself from Mr Momii's comments, which it said were a personal opinion.

"Our understanding is that chairman Momii made the comment as an individual", not as the head of Japan's public broadcaster, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

It declined to comment further on the issue.

Mr Momii, 70, has since apologised for the comments, which he described as a personal opinion.

He conceded they were "extremely inappropriate", and admitted he should not have expressed his personal views publicly, Kyodo News reported on Monday.

Mr Momii previously served as a vice chairman of trading house Mitsui, and is rumoured to have been Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's preferred choice as NHK chairman, the news agency said.

During Saturday's press conference Momii had also said the comfort women issue was "complicated because South Korea says Japan was the only country that forcibly recruited (women)".

During Mr Abe's first stint as prime minister in 2007, he provoked region-wide uproar when he said there was no evidence that Japan directly forced women to work as sex slaves.

His administration has struggled to escape the whiff or revisionism, with a recent visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which counts 14 senior war criminals among the souls it honours, compounding the problem.

"Regarding the comfort women issue, Prime Minister Abe is saddened when he thinks about the people who went thorough sufferings beyond description," Mr Suga said, noting Mr Abe's stance was the same as his predecessors.

"Comfort women" is Japan's preferred euphemism for women drafted into military brothels.

The issue continues to provoke regional tensions, with South Korea and China insisting that Japan must face up to its World War II-era wrongs.

Historians say up to 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere were forced into brothels catering to the Japanese military in territories occupied by Japan during WWII.

Last year, popular Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto prompted global outrage last year by suggesting that "comfort women" served a "necessary" role by keeping battle-stressed soldiers in check.

In a landmark 1993 statement, then chief Japanese government spokesman Yohei Kono apologised to former comfort women and acknowledged Japan's role in causing their suffering.

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