Japan's Abe on Korea-Japan Issues: "Korea Crossed the Line, Defaming Japan's Honor"

Interview with Japanese Right-Wing Monthly Magazine 'Hanada' July Issue

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed that "South Korea is crossing the line and damaging Japan's honor" in the historical issues between Korea and Japan.

In an interview with the latest July issue of the Japanese right-wing monthly magazine Hanada, released on the 26th, former Prime Minister Abe said regarding the comfort women issue, "The entire Japanese public is probably at their limit with South Korea," adding, "This has also been conveyed to the Korean side."

Abe's remarks criticized South Korea for continuously raising the issue of forced conscription of comfort women in the international community, despite the current Japanese government not recognizing the issue as factual and lacking grounds to support it.

During Abe's administration, in February 2016 at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women held in Geneva, Switzerland, the Japanese government, led by then Foreign Ministry official Shinsuke Sugiyama, claimed that "there is no evidence to support forced conscription of comfort women," reversing the stance that had acknowledged forced conscription in the August 1993 Kono Statement.

Former Prime Minister Abe had previously expressed the view that the cabinet led by Yoshihide Suga, his successor, made a "very good decision" in April by effectively denying the Kono Statement through a cabinet resolution that deemed the use of the term "military comfort women" in Japanese textbooks inappropriate.

He also mentioned the issue of forced labor victims as an obstacle to current Korea-Japan relations, stating, "The South Korean Supreme Court's ruling ordering Japanese companies to compensate forced labor victims violates international law, so Japan must not back down even a step."

He added, "I have conveyed to President Moon Jae-in several times that South Korea's response is strange."

He also argued that the Japanese government has taken a "mature response" regarding historical issues with South Korea.

Until now, Japan has had a "sense of atonement" for its colonial rule in Korea and, while thinking that there were mistakes in what South Korea said, accepted it as it was.

He said, "Not only with South Korea but with any country, if there are actions or remarks that damage Japan's honor, we must clearly refute them," adding, "During my tenure, I instructed all ambassadors to make such rebuttals."

Meanwhile, in the interview with this magazine, former Prime Minister Abe named the next candidates to succeed Prime Minister Suga as Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Hakubun Shimomura, and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, in that order.

Regarding the possibility of his own return to the prime ministership, he smiled and said, "I am not thinking about it at all."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.