Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on Friday denied he set up a military brothel during World War II when he was a naval officer, claiming the facility he built was only for "rest and recreation" for the engineering corps he led.
In memoirs published in an anthology in 1978, Nakasone wrote that he set up an "ian-jo," or "comfort station," for the engineering corps in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The wartime military called the brothels comfort stations and the women forced into sexual servitude for the troops "ian-fu," or "comfort women.”
Nakasone called the facility he set up an ian-jo, but claimed it was for recreation, not for sex. The word "ian" can be translated as "comfort" and "consolation," but also "recreation.”