Japan says it stands by apology on WW2 sex slaves

TOKYO, Mar 7 (Reuters) Japan, under diplomatic fire for appearing to sidestep responsibility for forcing women to act as wartime sex slaves for its soldiers, said today that the government stood by a 1993 apology acknowledging coercion.

But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe again denied that Japanese soldiers had kidnapped the mostly Asian women to force them to act as prostitutes during World War Two.

Abe stirred anger in Asia with remarks last week that seemed to question the state's role in the wartime brothels, although he also said then that the apology stood.

The 1993 ''Kono Statement,'' named after then-chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono in whose name it was issued, acknowledged the Japanese military's role in setting up wartime brothels and that many women were taken to and kept in the brothels against their will.

''I have said that I stand by the Kono statement and there is no change to that,'' Abe told reporters today.

Abe touched off additional protests when he said on Monday that Japan would not apologise again over the sex slave issue even if US lawmakers adopt a resolution calling for an apology.

The non-binding resolution introduced by US Congressman Michael Honda, a California Democrat, calls on Japan to unambiguously apologise for the suffering that thousands of Asian women, many Korean, endured at the hands of its Imperial Army.

''The resolution in the United States is based on a misconception of facts,'' Abe said, echoing his recent remarks.

''There is a misunderstanding that there was coercion by the Japanese military police as though they were kidnappers.

''That is not the case, and I have stated that there has been nothing to back that up.'' Despite the government apology, reference to ''comfort women'' -- Japan's euphemism for wartime sex slaves -- was deleted from many school textbooks in 2005, and some lawmakers in Abe's ruling party say that the 1993 statement should be watered down.

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