The Fight
for Justice

Japan has never formally apologized. In 1993 it acknowledged the system existed. In 2015 it signed an agreement with South Korea that survivors rejected. The gap between diplomatic compromise and genuine accountability remains wide — and the women who could say whether it has been bridged are nearly all gone.

The Kono Statement — 1993

Faced with mounting evidence and international pressure following Kim Hak-soon's 1991 testimony, the Japanese government commissioned an investigation. On August 4, 1993, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono released a statement acknowledging that the Japanese military had been directly or indirectly involved in the establishment and management of comfort stations, and that women had been recruited against their will.

The Kono Statement was historic — the first official Japanese acknowledgment that the system had existed and that coercion had been involved. But it fell short in critical ways: it was a statement from a cabinet official, not a formal government resolution or apology. And in subsequent years, Japanese politicians — including multiple prime ministers — repeatedly suggested the statement should be revised or retracted.

The Asian Women's Fund — 1995

In 1995, the Japanese government established the Asian Women's Fund — a semi-private fund intended to compensate surviving comfort women. The fund paid "atonement money" of ¥2 million (approximately $20,000) to survivors in several countries, accompanied by a letter of apology from the Prime Minister.

Most Korean survivors refused to accept it. They argued that private fund money — not government reparations — was an attempt to buy silence without accepting legal liability. Accepting the fund, they said, would let Japan claim the matter was resolved. The Korean Council urged survivors to reject it. Many who did accept it faced public criticism in South Korea. The fund was dissolved in 2007.

The 2015 Agreement — and why survivors rejected it

On December 28, 2015, the governments of South Korea and Japan announced a landmark bilateral agreement. Japan expressed "sincere apologies and remorse," and pledged ¥1 billion (approximately $8.3 million USD) toward a new foundation for surviving victims. Both governments declared the issue "finally and irreversibly resolved."

The survivors were not consulted before the agreement was signed.

When the terms were announced, most surviving Korean comfort women rejected the deal outright. Their objections were clear and consistent:

• — The agreement did not include a formal admission of legal state responsibility — only an expression of "apology and remorse" from the Prime Minister.
• — The ¥1 billion was described as a Japanese government "contribution," not reparations — maintaining Japan's position that all legal claims were settled by the 1965 treaty normalizing Korea-Japan relations.
• — The agreement included a provision that South Korea would "endeavor" to resolve the situation of the Peace Girl statue in front of the Japanese Embassy — widely interpreted as pressure to remove it.
• — Survivors were not involved in the negotiations. The deal was made between two governments about an atrocity committed against women who were still alive to speak.

Lee Yong-soo, one of the most prominent surviving activists, said: "We are not items to be traded between governments. This agreement does not represent us."

In 2019, South Korea dissolved the foundation established under the agreement. Japan called this a breach of the deal. The diplomatic rift continues.

What a genuine apology would require

Survivors and advocates have been consistent for thirty years about what they need. It is not complicated:

• 01 Official acknowledgment by the Japanese government — not a cabinet statement but a resolution of the National Diet — that the comfort station system was a state-operated crime involving forced sexual slavery.
• 02 A sincere, unambiguous apology that is not subsequently walked back by government officials or excised from school textbooks.
• 03 Legal reparations from the Japanese state — not private fund money — acknowledging state responsibility.
• 04 Accurate historical education in Japanese schools, so future generations understand what happened.
• 05 Preservation of the Peace Girl statues and other memorials, rather than ongoing Japanese diplomatic pressure for their removal.

Japan's position today

Japan's current government maintains that the matter was resolved by the 2015 agreement and, before that, by the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty on Basic Relations. It continues to contest the characterization of the system as "forced sexual slavery" in international forums. Japanese diplomatic missions have lobbied against comfort women memorials in Germany, the United States, and Australia.

In 2021, a Seoul court ordered Japan to pay reparations to twelve survivors. Japan refused to recognize the ruling, citing state immunity under international law. The ruling has not been enforced.

The legal, diplomatic, and moral questions remain entirely unresolved. And almost all of the women who could witness to that resolution — or to its failure — are gone.