Former US Ambassador warns Japan over comfort women issue

John Thomas Schieffer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, said, “If Tokyo revises the Kono Statement, this will significantly undermine its national interest in the U.S.”

Schieffer said at a U.S.-Japan Symposium in Washington on Friday (local time), “The comfort women (for Japanese soldiers) issue can never be justified.” Through the Kono Statement, Japan admitted the forced recruitment of comfort women by the Japanese colonial forces. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intended to revise it, saying during the primary for the Liberal Democratic Party in September last year, “Japan had been disgraced by the Kono Statement.” As the prime minister in December last year, however he took a step back, saying, “The Chief Cabinet Secretary will decide after listening to experts’ opinions.”

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a major business daily in Japan, said on Schieffer’s remark Saturday, “There is a clear difference between the U.S., which sees the comfort women issue as a human rights one, and Japan, which sees it as an historical recognition,” adding, “The efforts to revise the Kono Statement can create a ripple in the U.S.-Japan relationship that has been good so far.”

Meanwhile, the Japanese government began to take actions to smooth out Prime Minister Abe’s comment on the "definition of invasion." The leading Japanese daily Yomiuri said Friday, “The Prime Minister’s lack of expression could cause misunderstanding. (It) decided to answer to the parliament after coordinating the cabinet’s views in advance.”

Regarding the Murayama Statement in which Japan apologized Japan’s colonial rule and invasion, Prime Minister Abe said to the House of Councilors on April 23, “The definition of invasion was not set academically and internationally.” This remark caused strong backlash from Korea and China.