Tokyo's prolonged estrangement from Seoul seemed closer to resolution Friday as Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida announced upcoming talks with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se to settle a dispute over women and girls who were forced to work at Japanese wartime military brothels.
"The 'comfort women' issue is very difficult to deal with, but I will try my utmost," Kishida told reporters ahead of his planned one-day talks with Yun in the South Korean capital on Monday.
"Comfort women" is how Japan refers to the mainly East Asian women who were lured or coerced into service at brothels for the Imperial Japanese military during the 1930s and 40s.