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TOKYO : Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under fire for his remarks on World War II sex slaves, on Monday apologised again to so-called "comfort women," saying he stood by a landmark 1993 statement.
Abe, questioned in parliament by a leftist lawmaker on whether he would apologise to comfort women, said he was ready to do so.
"I am apologising now as the prime minister," Abe said, his spokesman Hiroshi Suzuki told AFP.
"This has been stated in the Kono statement," Abe said.
In 1993, a statement by then chief government spokesman Yohei Kono apologised to former comfort women and acknowledged that Japan was involved directly or indirectly in causing their suffering.
Abe earlier this month triggered an uproar when he said there was no evidence that Japan directly coerced comfort women. He later elaborated by saying he was talking of coercion in the "strict" sense of kidnapping women.
The conservative premier was the founding member of a group of lawmakers who called for Japan to water down the 1993 statement. But since taking office, he has repeatedly said he stands by the Kono apology.
However, Abe has said in the past that he feels no need to make a fresh apology beyond the 1993 statement.
Historians say up to 200,000 young women, mostly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels.
The row over comfort women comes amid a push in the US Congress to pass a resolution that would demand Japan make an unambiguous apology to former sex slaves and offer compensation.
Abe's government has lobbied aggressively against the bill, which is seen as more likely to pass since the Democrats took power from President George W. Bush's Republicans in January.
- AFP/ms
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