Examining Japan's Legal Responsibility regarding the 'Comfort Women' Question - with a Focus on the Kato Statement and the Kono Statement

The comfort women problem is the problem of sex slaves initiated by Japan during W.W.Ⅱ. Following the late Kim Hak-sun’s public confession in 1991 that she was a comfort woman for the Japanese military, the Japanese government apologized to the female victims who were comfort women for the Japanese military and promised follow-up actions through the Kato Statement, which was issued in July 1992, and the Kono Statement, which was made in August 1993. The Kato Statement did not recognize the forcefulness involved with the mobilization of comfort women, whereas the Kono Statement acknowledged the forcefulness to some extent, considering that it took place during the period of Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula. The latter, which recognized the responsibility of the private recruiters and the officials of the Japanese Governor-General in Korea who received requests from the military, which brought ambiguity to the accountability of the Japanese military or the Japanese government. Also, it brought limitations of the Kono Statement as well.
An analysis of the official documents collected and disclosed by the Japanese government showed that the Japanese government cannot be exempted from legal responsibility for mobilizing the comfort women because the Home Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively provided assistance for it as part of the mobilization system. Another problem is that while the documents that the Japanese government has yet to recognize include documents, which show that the installation of comfort stations was instructed by the old Japanese military, the related ministries do not recognize as documents that are related to comfort women and refuse to submit them to the Japanese government. To retrieve the documents that are still unrecognized by the Japanese government and have them acknowledged as official documents, more aggressive effort is needed by researchers and groups working on the comfort women situation.

Keywords: Comfort Women, the Kato Statement, the Kono Statement, Government Officials, Legal Responsibility.