Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said there was no evidence that the Imperial Japanese Army forced Korean women and girls into sexual servitude at wartime military brothels.
In response to a question Tuesday about South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's visit to the disputed Takeshima islets, which are called Dokdo in South Korea, which controls them, Hashimoto touched on Lee's recent demands for Japan to apologize to the forced sex workers — now often described as "sex slaves" by the media — who were euphemistically called "comfort women" by the Japanese.
"There is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by violence or threat by the (Japanese) military," Hashimoto said. "If there is such evidence, South Korea should provide it."