TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan said Friday it had coordinated with South Korea behind the scenes on the wording of the so-called 1993 Kono statement regarding Asian women who were forced to work in Japan's wartime military brothels.
The findings came in a report by a panel of experts picked by the government on a review on how the statement issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono was compiled, amid concern in South Korea that Japan may retract the statement that offered an apology to those women.
The statement acknowledged for the first time the military's involvement in setting up "comfort stations" and the use of coercion in recruiting women to provide sex with Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.
Coordination between Japan and South Korea in the process of composing the statement came to light for the first time.
The five-member panel concluded that at the request of Seoul, Tokyo stipulated coercion was involved in recruiting the women, euphemistically called "comfort women" in Japan.
The panel also argued that the government at the time did not examine whether the South Korean women interviewed told the truth, and a draft statement was made even before Tokyo finished all planned interviews.
Before the statement was worked out, South Korea had told Japan that the envisioned paper should be appreciated by its people and promised that it will not seek monetary compensation over comfort women, according to the panel.
"We looked into the facts available when we crafted the Kono statement. And we will leave it up to intellectuals and experts to decide how history, including the issue of comfort women, should be evaluated," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference.
"We will uphold the Kono statement and our stance won't change at all," Suga, the government spokesman said, reiterating that Tokyo does not intend to revise the statement and hopes for improved bilateral ties as it sees Seoul as an important partner.
Not only Suga but also Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said there would be no change to the statement itself. The government has conveyed the outcome of the review to South Korea, the spokesman added.
"We carried out the review on a fair and equitable basis," Keiichi Tadaki, review team leader and former prosecutor general, said at a press conference Friday.
"We read almost all available documents owned by Japan (on the issue)," he said. "The purpose of the review was to build forward-looking Japan-South Korea relations."
In February, Suga announced the government's plan to launch a team to "re-examine and understand the background" of the Kono statement.
The move drew criticism from the South Korean government, with its Foreign Ministry saying, "The more Japan denies historical truth, the more it will be isolated from the international community."
