Kishida says he has no plans to review Japan's 'comfort women' apology

Japan has apologized and paid for its war crimes repeatedly. Meanwhile, the Moon administration dissolved the comfort women fund that Japan started, an activist was arrested for embezzling money meant for the comfort women, and a Korean professor was sued for libel after publishing a book proving that some Koreans willingly became comfort women or helped recruit other comfort women.

South Korea is the one that needs to get over it and stop using Japan as a scapegoat. The hypocrisy and self-righteousness make me ashamed to be Korean.

No more. Every time SK has a new president, we go through the same nonsense. We are basically use as a tool to drum up their nationalism and earn more voters for those politicians. People in Japan already no longer care about their views anymore. I think SK enjoy it if they see us apology and grovel to them every year and try seek more compensation every time.

Undeniably, this was an act, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day,

Japanese style of slyly hiding the truth.

Should be revised as follows,

"Undeniably this was an act lead by the military authorities of the day...."

Have the balls to revise it and admit your mistakes.

Smith and Doley-

Well said!

Why are people still going on about what happened nearly 100 years ago ? All those involved are long gone. Maybe you should demand The Egyptian government apologise for their actions while building the pyramids

And every time your LDP cronies go to Yasukuni it effectively nullifies all of your past apologies.

Good news.

Kishida reached an agreement with South Korea in 2015, when he was foreign minister, to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the issue of the comfort women, but South Korean President Moon Jae In has since questioned the legitimacy of the accord.

It's quite apparent that SK does not actually want to resolve this issue. Japan has moved on, SK never will.

Kishida reached an agreement with South Korea in 2015, when he was foreign minister, to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the issue of the comfort women, but South Korean President Moon Jae In has since questioned the legitimacy of the accord.

That's a polite way of saying it. Moon ripped up the agreement, didn't put forth any replacement, then went on to whine about Japan doing nothing about the comfort women agreement.

I was supportive of Korea until then. Now it's clear they just want to complain, as the ball is in their court, and they haven't put anything forward.

Unfortunately, it's the comfort women who lose.

Would it hurt to be genuine in your apologies?

Too many right wing type people in the Japanese government. Shocking.

In the mean time, South Koreans themselves have finally realized these are all lies piled-up on lies.

I don’t think so but is there still possibly any posters here who believe fake Korean narratives that so called Korean comfort women were forcibly abducted by IJA at all???

Chong Dae Hyup and it's ad-tower Lee Yong soo all should thrown into jail for fooling not only South Korea herself but the entire world.

Time for Japan to "just say NO". Enough money has been spent, since the 1960s when the first "final settlement" was reached with the Korean government over all wartime compensation.

Now is time to wean Korea off the bottle of self-pity. This issue is used by politicians in Seoul as a convenient way to distract people from the very real problems that afflict Korea today.

The scholarship on the issue is NOT something Korea wants to bring to light. Like so many issues, it is not black and white. Many of the victims could not have been victimized without the active co-operation of many of their fellow countrymen. Yet this is not ever brought up in Korea. A taboo topic best left unsaid.

Would it hurt to be genuine in your apologies?

you try & be genuine for not only something you didn’t do, but something that occurred before you were even born.

@tooheysnew

Understood. But things don't work like that.

The main difference being I'm not a country or a government.

A country or a government should be held accountable, apologise properly, and try to build bridges. Japan behaves like the victim all the time. That's just wrong.

the very first thing the J govt needs to do is tell the truth about WWII to the younger generation (edit the textbooks and remove all the crap Abe implemented - he comes from a family of war criminals!)

ask any German person nowadays about WWII and they can explain all the horrible things the Nazis did and most importantly, how as a country, each individual person has a role to play to not forget about this and do whatever necessary to not let something like this to happen ever again...

every country has done things they are not very proud of... so why not just accept it... the Germans have done it so i don't understand why Japan govt can't...

ask any German person nowadays about WWII and they can explain all the horrible things the Nazis did and most importantly, how as a country, each individual person has a role to play to not forget about this and do whatever necessary to not let something like this to happen ever again...

every country has done things they are not very proud of... so why not just accept it... the Germans have done it so i don't understand why Japan govt can't...

No. They don't know a bit about German version of comfort stations which German government had managed directly through ww1 and ww2 where French, Polish, Ukranian girls were forcibly abducted to work there. and yes, done by not only Natiz Germany but Germany national army.

Needless to say, there's no apology made so far, even once, rather trying to keep any more ugly histories from leaking out.

Those who always quote Germany as some sample should really stop it.

Germany's apology was done only to Jews and holocaust and after almost 120 years passed, apologized to Namibia for the very 1 st time to it's only one of ex-colonies without admitting legal responsibilities.

@tooheysnew

Why are people still going on about what happened nearly 100 years ago ? All those involved are long gone

Then you should also try asking the same question the next time Japan plays the Hiroshima and Nagasaki card

They say the actual victims were not involved in concluding 2015 agreement and that' s why they threw the agreement into the garbage bin. But who are they? who are complaining as such? Chong Dae Hyup and just a few so-called survivers like Lee Yong soo right? They cannot be defined as the comfort woman victim for Japanese military, at least, she doesn't fit the conditions to be officially registered as such at Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in South Korea. These scams kept lying and fooled UNHCR and special reporters, San Francisco assembly, every states governors including the one in Germany Berlin ... and YOU yourself.

No. They don't know a bit about German version of comfort stations which German government had managed directly through ww1 and ww2 where French, Polish, Ukranian girls were forcibly abducted to work there. and yes, done by not only Natiz Germany but Germany national army.

Needless to say, there's no apology made so far, even once, rather trying to keep any more ugly histories from leaking out.

Those who always quote Germany as some sample should really stop it.

Germany's apology was done only to Jews and holocaust and after almost 120 years passed, apologized to Namibia for the very 1 st time to it's only one of ex-colonies without admitting legal responsibilities.

Lets not sidetrack and avoid the issue here - Japan's history textbook on WWII!

but thank you for pointing out the German comfort stations - the world needs to know regardless if its Japan or Germany...

No apology is enough for S. Korea. That's the truth and reality of the matter. If an apology was enough, this would have ended decades ago. 56 apologies later they still say it never happened.

S.Korea wants more!

More compensation and apologies.

Takeshima Island as a bonus.

Added to Best friends list while bashing Japan and building comfort women statues.

Japan take all the responsibility in East Asia to help America, while they avoid China, Taiwan and Russia. It's all about North Korea to them.

Geniune apology?

I don't hear you telling SKorea to be Geninune about wanting to fix relations with Japan. S. Korea it's never geniune in the first place, that's the problem.

We're not the ones asking for money, apologies then say it's not sincere but will keep the money. Then try to sue and take Japanese companies to court.

Japan already reached an Agreement with South Korea in 2015, paying the money and a Prime Ministerial Apology. Moon ripped it up. What more can Japan say or do about this issue? South Korea has neither returned the money to Japan nor given it to the surviving CW.

Japan's apoologies are sincere and genuine. It is South Korea who is not sincere, doing everything they can to perpatuate anti-Japan sentiment as a political tool. J-politicians' individual comments, or visiting the Yasukuni shrine do not negate Japan's official position or apologies.

South Korea has exported it's anti-Japan agenda overseas building CW statues in various places to build global hate for the Japanese. Yet, when Covid hit the world in 2020 the ones harassing and assaulting Koreans for "looking Chinese/Asian" were not Japanese. The Korean diaspora really needs to wake up.

As for the perpetual Germany arguments, Germany today has a problem with Nazis. They have not apologized to the women they kidnapped off the streets in countries they invaded and put into military brothels.

@OssanAmerica

As for the perpetual Germany arguments, Germany today has a problem with Nazis

Do Germans officially glorify Nazis and put up memorials to them, though? Does their govt make official statements along the lines of "Germany did nothing wrong, we were acting for the benefit of Europe, and then evil Russians and evil Americans came and bombed our cities, so we're only victims"? Do they officially teach this version of history at school?..

Not that I've heard of

mardariusToday  03:06 pm JST

@tooheysnew

Why are people still going on about what happened nearly 100 years ago ? All those involved are long gone

Then you should also try asking the same question the next time Japan plays the Hiroshima and Nagasaki card

If you were American you'd know that's nonsense. Dignitaries and envoys from 93 nations attended the Hiroshima Memorial Ceremony. That's because it's not being played as a "victim card" by the Japanese government, but represents the global hope for a nuclear free world.

@OssanAmerica

Japan teaches that Japan invaded asian nations and started the Pacific War. This is in their school textbooks.

Yes... except that there have been repeated efforts to minimize the coverage of those events in textbooks, essentially reducing them to an unobtrusive footnote. After all, we don't want the country to look bad in kids' eyes, now do we?

As Historian Stephen E. Ambrose noted, “The Japanese presentation of the war to its children runs something like this: One day, for no reason we ever understood, the Americans started dropping atomic bombs on us”.

History as taught in Japanese elementary schools has made some progress towards reality.

The nucleus of South Korean government including Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, South Korean justice, and the entire South Korean society have almost perceived these are such shameful fraud dramas so that they are now trying so hard to enclose what they call victims who could expose their ugly lies anytime. And that is the reason why they do not let what they call victims to stand and testify no more at the courts for several defamation cases these days whenever brave South Korean scholars tried to inform the society of historical truths.

Shame on you, South Korea, Shame on you Chong Dae Hyup. Shame on you, Lee Yong soo, Shame on you all who called Japan " Shame on you". It is not Japan but South Korea and these scum that must make sincere apology.

mardariusDec. 10  09:44 pm JST

@OssanAmerica

Japan teaches that Japan invaded asian nations and started the Pacific War. This is in their school textbooks.

Yes... except that there have been repeated efforts to minimize the coverage of those events in textbooks, essentially reducing them to an unobtrusive footnote. After all, we don't want the country to look bad in kids' eyes, now do we?

Toral nonsense. And even if it were true, so what? In a free democracy people and organizations can do things and are only limited by the rule of law.

The country that needs to end it's blatant white washing of history is South Korea whih denies the role Korea played in WWII. Over 250,000 Korean men willingly serving and making use of the Comfort Stations.

@OssanAmerica

Toral nonsense

Could you explain what exactly are you referring to as "nonsense"? If you mean the textbook problem, sadly it's not nonsense but a fact

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies

And even if it were true, so what? In a free democracy people and organizations can do things and are only limited by the rule of law.

Surely this principle should be applied consistently in all cases? So, why then does Japan make such a fuss when, for instance, Koreans put up statues to " comfort women"? After all, they're not doing anything illegal either