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Speaking a day after the new cabinet was named, the official, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who serves as the government’s top spokesman, refused to say clearly whether the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, an outspoken nationalist, would uphold the 1993 apology.
Mr. Suga said at a news conference that it would be “desirable for experts and historians to study” the so-calledKono Statement, which acknowledged the Imperial Army’s involvement in forcing thousands of captured Asian and Dutch women to provide sex for Japanese soldiers. Most historians say the women were coerced and were not prostitutes, as Mr. Abe and other nationalists have claimed in the past.
Mr. Suga also said, however, that the Abe government would uphold a broader apology, issued in 1995 to observe the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, to all victims of Japan’s colonialism and aggression.
Mr. Abe, who also served as prime minister in 2006 and 2007, has never been shy about his right-wing agenda, which includes calls for textbooks with a more patriotic tone. But after watching his popularity plummet in his last term as mainstream Japanese bridled at his hawkish stands, some analysts have suggested that he might be more restrained this time.
If Mr. Abe revises the apology, the move will run counter to the wishes of the United States. American officials say they have urged Mr. Abe to shelve calls to revise the Kono Statement to avoid increasing tensions with South Korea. The United States has been urging the two countries, its closest allies in the region, to increase cooperation as China is asserting more territorial claims and as North Korea appears to be continuing to strengthen its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
The sex slaves issue remains highly emotional in South Korea, a former Japanese colony. On Thursday, the South Korean Foreign Ministry called on Japan not to forget its militaristic past.
The Kono Statement — named for the chief cabinet secretary who issued it, Yohei Kono — has long been a sore point for Japanese rightists, who deny either that the women were coerced or that the military had a hand in forcing them to become what many Japanese euphemistically call “comfort women.” These critics include Mr. Abe, who has repeatedly called for revising the statement, most recently during an internal Liberal Democratic Party election in September.
The issue, however, does not resonate broadly among the public, which remains averse to provoking other Asian countries over issues of history and territory, and Mr. Abe avoided talking about the matter during the national parliamentary elections this month that swept his Liberal Democrats back into power.
The sex slaves issue has rippled into other areas of tension before. During his final months in office, President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea visited a group of islands claimed by both his nation and Japan in an apparent display of displeasure over Japan’s refusal to pay official compensation to South Korea’s few hundred surviving former sex slaves, now in their 80s.
South Korea’s newly elected president, Park Geun-hye, has also shown personal interest in the matter, attending United States Congressional hearings in 2007 that criticized Mr. Abe’s denials that the women were coerced.
日本欲从教科书上删除强征慰安妇内容
11/04/2013 | 车学峰|朝鲜日报
日本政府正在推进修订教科书审定制度，以便从教科书上删除日军强征慰安妇的内容。
日本文部科学相下村博文10日在国会答辩时表示：“教科书要体现以生在日本为自豪的历史认识。”并就现行教科书审定制度表示，将讨论修改事宜。此前自民党议员西川京子提问时要求修改教科书审定制度说：“教科书上有日军把随军慰安妇当作了性奴隶的内容，这是自虐史观。”日本极右势力一直主张，随军慰安妇是自愿的，而不是强征的。
日本首相安倍晋三当天在国会答辩时也表示：“遗憾的是，教科书审定标准没有体现尊重爱国心和乡土爱的教育基本法精神。让学生感到自豪才是教育的根本。有必要审视教科书是否以教育的观点编写。”
安倍晋三和下村博文的发言是在指责，最近通过审定的高中部分教科书中有日军强征慰安妇的内容。安倍晋三在议会竞选时曾主张：“既然没有证据证明强征慰安妇，就有必要修改河野承认并道歉的谈话。”
安倍晋三在竞选纲领中提出，要在教科书中废除“近邻诸国”条款，摆脱“自虐史观”。1982年日本在教科书审定标准里补充了“照顾近邻诸国、国际理解和国际协调”的近邻诸国条款。该条款要求编写教科书时照顾邻国。如果该条款被删除，教科书的记述方式将从“日本的侵略”改为“日本的进军”。
