During a town meeting Saturday in Shizuoka, Nakayama said he had been speaking
semantically last November about the term used for the tens of thousands of
women who were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Nakayama had said last November, "It is good that expressions such as `comfort
women' have decreased in history textbooks."
The remark immediately came under fire, and Nakayama was forced to issue an
apology several days later.
Nakayama revisited the issue Saturday, when he said: "The word (comfort women)
did not exist during the war but was being used in textbooks. So I said it was
good that this incorrect expression was being removed from textbooks."
At his news conference Monday, Hosoda said the problem was not the word itself
but what really took place.
"As long as there are people who existed as comfort women, the government's
stance is unchanged," Hosoda said.
"In the past, the government has expressed apologies and remorse in the form of
a chief Cabinet secretary statement," Hosoda said. "Our position has not
changed."
The Asahi Shimbun
