Japanese lawmaker says comfort women were prostitutes, then apologizes

TOKYO—A Japanese lawmaker said on Thursday wartime sex slaves forced to work for Japan’s Imperial Army were “professional prostitutes,” before he was forced to retract the remarks and issue an apology, local media reported.

The comments from a senior member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party provoked criticism from Seoul, just two weeks after Tokyo offered an apology and a one-billion yen ($8.5 million) payment to surviving South Korean women under an agreement both nations described as “final and irreversible.”

The plight of the “comfort women,” a euphemistic expression used in Japan and South Korea to describe them, is a hugely emotional issue that has for decades marred ties between Seoul and Tokyo, which ruled the Korean peninsula harshly as a colony from 1910 to 1945.

The landmark agreement has sparked an angry reaction from some of the victims and South Korean activists, who take issue with Japan’s refusal to accept formal legal responsibility for the sex slavery.

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Yoshitaka Sakurada initially made the comments during a meeting with 10 other LDP lawmakers on Thursday morning.

“They were professional prostitutes,” Sakurada told the gathering, according to Jiji Press, referring to wartime sex slaves from Korea.

“That’s business,” he added.