Hashimoto Apologizes to U.S. over Sex Industry Remark

Tokyo, May 27 (Jiji Press)--Toru Hashimoto, coleader of major opposition Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party), apologized Monday to the military and citizens of the United States for recommending the use of the Japanese sex industry by U.S. servicemen stationed in the country. The comment "was inappropriate," Hashimoto, also mayor of Osaka, western Japan, told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. "I retract the remark and express an apology." But he did not withdraw another inflammatory comment, on so-called "comfort women" forced to work as prostitutes for soldiers of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army till the end of World War II. Hashimoto indicated he would have to consider whether to resign as coleader of Nippon Ishin if the voters in the upcoming House of Councillors election this summer say "no" to his remarks and the party. The party's possible defeat in the national poll is likely to lead to intraparty debate on Hashimoto's continued leadership, he forecast. On Saturday, Nippon Ishin executives renewed their determination to fight the election under Hashimoto's leadership. Hashimoto has reiterated he would not voluntarily resign even if the party performs poorly in the contest. But he also said at Monday's news conference that politicians are always subject to the judgment of voters through elections in a democratic country. On May 13, Hashimoto told reporters that the wartime prostitution system for the military was necessary at the time. His remarks drew strong criticism both at home and abroad. To seek the understanding of foreign journalists, he distributed a written statement in Japanese and English at the news conference. "I stated that 'the armed forces of nations in the world' seemed to have needed women 'during the past wars,'" Hashimoto said. "Then it was wrongly reported that I myself thought it was necessary for armed forces to use women and that I tolerated it." It is "a hard historical fact" that the soldiers of some nations of the world used women for "sexual purposes" during wars, he added, arguing against any attempt to conclude the matter "by blaming only Japan and by associating Japan alone with the simple phrase of 'sex slaves' or 'sex slavery.'" On the sex industry comment for U.S. servicemen, Hashimoto said he had used the inappropriate expression because of his strong hope that the U.S. military in Japan would take steps to prevent the bilateral relationship of trust from being hurt by the crimes of a handful of U.S. soldiers. "I used the phrase 'the legally accepted adult entertainment industry in Japan,'" Hashimoto said. But when this was translated into English, "it led to the false report that I recommended prostitution--which is illegal under Japanese law," he argued. Hashimoto also said that a 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono that marked Japan's apology over the comfort women issue should be clarified on "whether the Japanese government deliberately and organizationally conducted abductions and trafficking of the women." "The primary reason that Japan-South Korea relations are not going very well is that the statement left this point vague," Hashimoto said, expressing hopes that historians from South Korea and Japan will come together to try and find the truth. On recent remarks by Shintaro Ishihara, the other Nippon Ishin leader, denying that World War II was a war of aggression for Japan, Hashimoto said that politicians who represent the country must admit that the war was an act of aggression and tell South Korea that it was a war of invasion. END