"comfort women"

A South Korean court dismissed a lawsuit against Japan to compensate women forced to work in its World War II-era front-line brothels, a boost for Tokyo amid a series of Korean court rulings awarding damages that sent relations plummeting between the U.S. allies.

The issue of South Korea’s former “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery for Japan’s wartime army during its colonial domination of Korea has come to the spotlight with the release of a panel report on negotiations leading up to a deal with Japan on the matter.

An illegal act, which would undermine relations with Japan, has been pushed through in South Korea in the midst of that country’s political turmoil. This is a grave situation.

We cannot help but raise doubts over the biased opinions of the United Nations committee concerning so-called “comfort women”.

Japan has agreed to pay 1 billion yen (Bt307 billion) to help the Republic of Korea set up a fund to support Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army before and during World War II, in order to settle the “comfort women” issue.

The fact that Japan's honour has been unfairly tarnished cannot be overlooked. Strategically strengthening the government's ability to convey its message abroad is a vital task to ensure factual errors are precisely corrected.