JAPAN DENIES FORCED SEXUAL SLAVERY

[Anchor Lead]

A Japanese court verdict on the illegality of Japan's conscription of woman as sexual slaves by deceiving them has been officially submitted to the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat. Despite this crucial evidence of forced sexual slavery, the Suga administration continues to deny it.

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March 1937. Japan's supreme court issues a verdict. It found ten civilians guilty of forcing 15 women to work as prostitutes at a naval unit in Shanghai, China, after deceiving them into working as restaurant staff. This supports the Kono Statement, which acknowledges forced sexual slavery. It's been found recently that the verdict had been submitted to the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat. In his reply to the National Diet on June 25, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the document was received from the Ministry of Justice on March 31 and was recognized as a paper related to the sex slavery issue. The Cabinet Secretariat has been collecting official documents on wartime sexual enslavement since 1991. But on the day this paper was received, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary once again denied that comfort women were forced to serve the Japanese military.

[Soundbite] Katsunobu Kato(Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan(Mar. 31)) : "Documents discovered by the government do not contain information on the so-called forced conscription by the military or authorities."

A month later, the Japanese government decided not to use the term "military comfort women" anymore. The word "military" implies forced conscription. This would prompt Japanese authorities to modify the already-approved school history textbooks.

[Soundbite] Hisamoto Kobayashi(Network for Research on Forced Labor Mobilization) : "Deceiving people and forcing them to go somewhere is kidnapping. If kidnapping is not forced, then what is? This serves as evidence of kidnapping and forced conscription."

The Suga cabinet claims it still supports the Kono Statement, which apologizes for the military's sexual slavery. But it continues to deny forced conscription.