Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who is also a co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, held a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday in an effort to control the damage caused by his May 13 remarks on Japan's wartime military sex slave system and from his call for the "greater use of adult entertainment shops" (fuzoku) by U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa.
Unfortunately, Mr. Hashimoto's response, which seemed to showcase the skills that he honed in his earlier career as a lawyer, has only deepened suspicions about his honesty and sincerity.
Referring to the Imperial Japanese armed forces' sex slave system, Mr. Hashimoto said on Monday: "I am totally in agreement that the use of 'comfort women' by Japanese soldiers before and during the World War II was an inexcusable act that violated the dignity and human rights of the women in which large numbers of Korean and Japanese were included. I am totally aware that their great pain and deep hurt were beyond description."