UN Criticizes Japan for Ignoring Comfort Women Issue... "Calls for Adequate Compensation and Apology"

Japan repeats same response on comfort women issue as 2 years ago
UN expresses "deep regret" and recommends prosecution and punishment of perpetrators

On September 24 (local time), the 5th anniversary event of the establishment of the Comfort Women Memorial was held at Saint Mary's Square in San Francisco, USA. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] The United Nations expressed regret, stating that it is difficult to find any trace of efforts by the Japanese government to resolve the comfort women issue. In particular, it pointed out that compensation for comfort women victims and an official government apology, which have been recommended since 2014, have still not been realized.

According to Yonhap News on the 6th, the UN Committee on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR, also known as the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) concluded its review of Japan's implementation of the Covenant on the 4th (local time) and made these remarks.

The committee pointed out in its review report that Japan has shown no progress on the comfort women issue. This is because the perpetrators responsible for the comfort women issue have not been prosecuted in criminal trials, and there have been no effective remedies or sufficient compensation for the victims.

The committee stated, "This constitutes a refusal by the Japanese government to fulfill its obligation to address ongoing human rights violations against comfort women victims based on the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," and expressed "regret."

It then presented three recommendations to the Japanese government. First, it urged an investigation of the comfort women issue through an independent and impartial body. It also demanded the disclosure of all available evidence, prosecution, and punishment of perpetrators. Lastly, it recommended ensuring that comfort women victims and their families in Korea and other countries have access to judicial remedies and receive adequate compensation, as well as educating about the comfort women issue through textbooks and condemning all attempts to belittle the victims or deny the incident.

It especially emphasized that these recommendations had already been mentioned in 2014. It pointed out that despite delivering similar recommendations eight years ago, the comfort women issue still remains unresolved.

On August 14, the 10th anniversary of the World Japanese Military Comfort Women Memorial Day, the Statue of a Girl stands in front of the former Japanese Embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The Japanese government has previously shown an attitude that seemed to ignore the comfort women issue. This was clearly revealed during the review of Japan’s implementation of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights held in Geneva on the 13th-14th of last month.

Member states of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including South Korea, regularly undergo reviews to determine whether their human rights-related legislation, correctional facilities, and various protective institutions meet the standards set by the UN.

At that time, Japan was questioned not only about its domestic human rights system but also about compensation for comfort women victims and the issue of an official apology. Questions included what additional measures the Japanese government had taken to resolve compensation issues for victims and their families, and whether an official apology could be expressed through a cabinet-level decision.

In response, Japan said, "It is inappropriate to raise the comfort women issue at the UN since it occurred before the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights came into effect in 1979." It also claimed, "According to the agreement reached at the Korea-Japan Foreign Ministers' Meeting in December 2015, the comfort women issue was finally and irreversibly resolved."

This was identical to the response Japan submitted to the CCPR Committee in 2020. Other responses, such as that fact-finding activities were sufficiently conducted in the 1990s and that a letter signed by the Prime Minister expressing remorse was delivered to the victims, were also largely similar in wording to those two years ago.

While the committee requested a response on what efforts had been made to resolve the comfort women issue beyond the 2020 response, Japan essentially repeated the same answers from two years ago.

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