Скачать или смотреть Japanese mayor apologises over US troops remarks but not on wartime 'comfort women'

(27 May 2013)
1. Wide of news conference with guest speaker Totu Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka
2. Cutaway of photographers
3. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Toru Hashimoto, Osaka Mayor:
"I understand that my recent remark could be construed as an insult to the US forces and to the American people and was inappropriate. I will retract my remark and I would like to apologise. I sincerely hope the American people will accept my apology and that Japan and the US will continue building a trusting relationship."
4. Wide pan of news conference
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Toru Hashimoto, Osaka Mayor:
"Regarding the involvement of the state, the question is whether it was the state's will to engage in organised abduction of women and human trafficking. The fundamental understanding of the majority of Japanese historians claims that there is no evidence of the involvement of the government. Even after the Kono statement was issued in 2007, there was a cabinet resolution in which it confirmed that there was no evidence to support the government's involvement in any abduction or human trafficking."
6. Wide of news conference
7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Toru Hashimoto, Osaka Mayor:
"The Kono statement is avoiding the point of the debate in which all the people of South Korea are interested.
(Translator: (English) As I mentioned earlier, this point it comes to the heart of what most grieves the people of Republic of Korea. In other words, this is the heart of the matter and yet, as I mentioned earlier, the Kono statement really does not talk at all about this point.)
"And I believe this is the main reason why the Japan-South Korea issue will not be resolved."
8. Wide of Hashimoto shaking hands with moderator of the news conference
STORYLINE
An outspoken Japanese politician apologised on Monday for saying US troops should patronise adult entertainment businesses as a way to reduce rapes.
However, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto defended another controversial remark about Japan's use of sex slaves during World War II.
Hashimoto, who is also the co-head of an emerging nationalistic party, said his remarks two weeks ago rose from a "sense of crisis" about cases of sexual assaults by US military personnel on Japanese civilians in Okinawa, where a large number of US troops are based.
"I understand that my recent remark could be construed as an insult to the US forces and to the American people and was inappropriate," he told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Tokyo.
Hashimoto had created an uproar with comments to journalists two weeks ago about Japan's wartime and modern sexual services.
They added to recent anger in neighbouring countries that suffered from Japan's wartime aggression and have complained about the lack of atonement for atrocities committed during that time.
Hashimoto said on May 13 that on a recent visit to the southern island of Okinawa, he suggested to the US commander there that the troops there "make better use" of the legal sex industry.
He also said that Japan's wartime practice of forcing Asian women, mostly from South Korea and China, to work in front-line brothels was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers.
He didn't apologise for those comments, but he did call the use of so-called comfort women "inexcusable" and a violation of the human rights of a large number of Korean and Japanese women.
However, he claimed he had been quoted out of context if it was inferred that he personally believed that the use of a "comfort women" system was necessary.
Hashimoto blamed the Japanese government for being unclear on the historical facts.

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