Ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae has rejected criticism by U.S.-based historians that Japan tried to meddle with descriptions in an American textbook over the use of "comfort women" at wartime Japanese military brothels.

The academics "allege interference by the government, but this is not a matter to be considered from that angle in the first place," Sasae told Japanese reporters Friday in Washington.

Sasae made the remarks after a group of 19 academics in a statement criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government for asking publisher McGraw-Hill to alter the wording of the description.