Historic 'Comfort Women' Agreement Still Requires Action

Expectations are high in Seoul and Tokyo that Monday’s landmark agreement to resolve the “comfort women” issue will allow South Korea and Japan to restore and further bilateral relations. The agreement is significant for Korea in that it promises to provide the recognition and compensation victims have long sought.

First, Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida reaffirmed a key—and in Japan, controversial—finding of the study that led to the so-called Kono Statement of 1993 which admitted that the Japanese military was involved in the establishment and operation of the so-called comfort stations. As recently as earlier this year, Japanese government officials questioned this finding and called for an inquiry into the reliability of claims made by victims interviewed for the study.

Second, as part of the agreement, Japanese Prime Minister Abe expressed anew his sincere apologies in his capacity as Prime Minister of Japan.

Third, the Japanese government agreed to take measures with its own budget to compensate the victims. While the 1993 Kono Statement led to the creation of an Asian Women’s Fund that was to provide aid and support to former sex slaves, contributions to the fund were made by private citizens and not by the government. Many former sex slaves refused to accept payments from the fund since, as a private fund, it was not state reparation.

The December 28th agreement should be hailed as a major achievement that will have an immediate—and hopefully lasting—impact on political, economic, security, and cultural relations between the two nations. Yet, it is important to be mindful of the fact that this is not the first apology Japan has issued. To make certain that the agreement will “finally and irreversibly” resolve the sex slave issue, Prime Minister Abe should take additional steps to demonstrate that this agreement represents more than just another grudging apology to Korea.

One place to start is to discourage elected officials from criticizing the agreement. While Japan is a democracy with a broad spectrum of views, criticisms by elected officials and government appointees of previously-issued apologies have suggested inconsistency if not duplicity in Japanese attitudes towards the “comfort women” issue. The Prime Minister should also carefully reconsider the advisability of visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and the government approval of revisionist textbooks that whitewash Japan’s imperial legacies. These actions will speak louder than any words.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.