Japan Tells UN It Had Nothing to Do with Sex Slaves

Japan has notified the UN that the imperial government in Tokyo had nothing to do with forcing women into sexual slavery for its troops during World War II.

The denial follows the signing of a deal with Korea on the issue last month whereby Japan offered a vague apology and pledged 1 billion yen in reparations.

But Tokyo's official position, long discredited by expert opinion, is that the military brothels were run by private operators and the women were simply prostitutes.

The fresh denial came in response to a question by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ahead of the 63rd meeting on abolishing discrimination against women.

According to the UNOHCHR website, Tokyo says, "The government of Japan has conducted a full-scale fact-finding study on the comfort women issue since the early 1990s when the issue started to be taken up as a political issue between Japan" and Korea. "Forceful taking away of comfort women by the military and government authorities could not be confirmed in any of the documents."

"Comfort women" is a Japanese euphemism for the sex slaves.

The Foreign Ministry here in a statement said the forced mobilization by imperial troops is "undeniable historic fact that the international community has concluded took place."