South Korean statue showing Japan PM Abe bowing to 'comfort woman' draws Tokyo's ire

The Japanese government reacted angrily on Tuesday to a statue in South Korea that appears to depict Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kneeling and bowing to a "comfort woman", a euphemism for women forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels. Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said if reports of the statue on display at a rural botanic garden were true, it would be an "unforgivable" breach of international protocol. "If the reports are accurate, then there would be a decisive impact on Japan-Korea relations," Suga told a news conference in Tokyo. The issue of comfort women, mostly Koreans forced to work in Japan's brothels before and during World War Two, and whether the surviving victims were adequately compensated, have long been a thorn in the two countries' ties. Japan regards the matter as "finally and irreversibly resolved" by a 2015 agreement reached by Abe and then South Korean President Park Geun-hye under which Abe apologised and pledged a fund to support the survivors.

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