An aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that Japan should consider issuing a new political statement on wartime sex slavery, if fresh facts are found while the government verifies how its 1993 apology to the "comfort women" was compiled.
"It would not be strange to issue a new political statement if new findings emerge," Koichi Hagiuda, a special advisor to Abe in his capacity as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters in Tokyo. Hagiuda said the idea was his "personal view."
Earlier in the month, Abe confirmed that his team will not retract or alter the 1993 apology known as the Kono statement for forcing women into sexual slavery during World War II.