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                Suga: Japan Won't Revise Wartime Brothel Apology

   by Reuters

   Japan will not revise a landmark 1993 apology to women, many Korean,
   who were forced to serve in wartime military brothels nor will it issue
   a new statement on the matter, Japan's top government spokesman said on
   Monday.

   "[The government] will examine the statement, but we will not revise
   it," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

   He also denied the possibility of a new government statement on
   "comfort women" as suggested by Koichi Hagiuda, a close aide to Prime
   Minister Shinzo Abe, over the weekend.

   Kyodo news agency and other Japanese media reported over the weekend
   that Hagiuda had suggested Japan could issue a new statement on comfort
   women if a review of the procedures that led to the government's
   apology uncovered new facts.

   Earlier this month, Abe said that his government would not revise the
   apology, issued by then-chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono, which
   recognized the involvement of Japanese authorities in coercing the
   women to work in the military brothels - a point many conservative
   Japanese dispute.

   South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed relief over Abe's
   remarks, and the two leaders are now set to join President Barack Obama
   in a three-way summit on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in The Hague
   starting on Monday.

   Washington has been pressing its allies in Tokyo and Seoul to improve
   ties, strained by South Korea's bitter memories of Japan's 1910-1945
   colonization of the peninsula and a territorial row over tiny South
   Korea-controlled islands.

   Japan has been sending confusing messages about the Kono Statement,
   saying it will review the circumstances behind the apology but will not
   revise the statement itself.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-suga-japan-wont-revise-wartime-br
   othel-apology/1877642.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-suga-japan-wont-revise-wartime-brothel-apology/1877642.html