Japan PM Abe apologises for WW2 sex slaves

Tokyo, Mar 26: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under fire abroad for denying government involvement in forcing women to serve as wartime sex slaves, said today that he was ''apologising here and now as the prime minister''.Abe said earlier this month there was no proof Japan's government or army kidnapped women to work as ''comfort women'', as the wartime sex slaves are known in Japan.

Abe has also said he stood by a 1993 apology known as the ''Kono Statement'' that acknowledged official involvement in the brothels.

But he has said there would be no new apology even if US lawmakers adopted a resolution seeking one.

''I am apologising here and now as the prime minister, and it is as stated in the Kono Statement,'' Abe told a parliamentary committee in response to a question by an opposition lawmaker.

The prime minister's earlier comments denying official involvement in kidnapping women, mostly Asian, to work in the wartime brothels have angered Seoul and risked straining ties with Washington, where US Congressman Michael Honda has introduced a resolution calling for Japan to make an unambiguous apology for the suffering of the sex slaves.

Reuters