Filipino "comfort women," or sex slaves, display placards during a rally at the Japanese Embassy in Manila, Philippines, on March 6. AP PHOTO

"We will not apologize because of a resolution," Abe told the House of Councilors Budget Committee, referring to the draft resolution on the table at the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The draft resolution is not based on objective facts nor does it reflect the Japanese government's responses so far," he said.

Abe reiterated he will stand by the government's 1993 statement acknowledging and apologizing for the forced recruitment of what Japan euphemistically referred to as "comfort women" in Japanese-occupied territories, including the Korean Peninsula and China. He was responding to a question from a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker.

Abe made the remarks after drawing a strong protest from Asian nations by saying recently that there is no evidence to back claims that the Japanese military used coercion to force the women into frontline brothels.

Tokyo, in the 1993 statement issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, acknowledged the Imperial Japanese Army was involved in forcing women in Asia into sexual servitude for its soldiers at front-line brothels.

Abe told the March 5 committee session that there was no evidence showing that Japanese military officials took the women by force -- such as by kidnapping -- to the brothels -- again denying there was coercion by the military in a strict sense.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 10, 2007
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