JAPANESE DOCUMENT DENYING “SEX SLAVES”

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An official Japanese government document has stated that victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery, often known as so-called“ comfort women," were not "sex slaves." It's not the first time Tokyo has made this claim but this time, it has dragged Korea into the argument. Despite strong protest from Seoul, Tokyo has not corrected the part in question for over half a year. Here are the details.

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This is the section in Japan's 2019 Diplomatic Bluebook where the so-called comfort women issue is addressed. It says the expression of sex slaves "contradicts the facts” and should thus not be used. It added that South Korea also confirmed this position when it struck a bilateral deal in December 2015 seeking to settle the sex slavery issue. Tokyo has repeated its continued stance of refusing to acknowledge the existence of wartime sexual enslavement.

[Soundbite] TARO KONO(THEN JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER(FEB. 2018)) : "The Korean delegation using the expression "sex slaves" is unacceptable to Japan. It's highly regrettable."

But this year, it even added a phrase that makes it appear as if the Korean government had consented to Japan's view. Seoul's foreign ministry has made it clear that South Korea does not agree with Japan's stance. It said that it simply noted that the official terminology used by the Korean government is "Japanese military comfort women victims," which does not include the word “slavery.” A Japanese foreign ministry official also told KBS that Korea did not agree wit h Japan's decision to not use the expression "sex slaves."

[Soundbite] (JAPAN'S FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "It doesn't mean that Korea said the expression "sex slaves" was inappropriate to use."

In the bluebook, Japan used the unified terminology used at the time of the 2015 deal to make it appear as if Korea refuted the notion of sex slaves. Seoul filed a protest when the bluebook came out in April, but Tokyo still refuses to correct it to this day. The Japanese government is believed to be attempting to sway opinions within the international community where the term sex slave is commonly used.