South Korean statue that appears to show Japanese Prime Minister bowing to ‘comfort woman’ angers Tokyo

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea / TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japanese government reacted angrily on Tuesday to a statue in South Korea that appears to represent Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, kneeling and bowing to a seated “woman of comfort”, a euphemism for women forced to work in Japan’s war brothels.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said that if the reports on the statue on display were true, it would be an “unforgivable” violation of international protocol.

“If the reports are accurate, there would be a decisive impact on relations between Japan and Korea,” Suga said at a press conference in Tokyo.

The head of a private botanical garden who commissioned the work said the kneeling figure should represent anyone who could formally apologize for the historical error, and not Abe in particular.

“If that person is Abe, that would be good,” Kim Chang-ryul told Reuters.

He had not expected the statue to inflame an already complicated diplomatic problem, he said.

The garden’s website, in rural Pyeongchang County, calls the statue “Eternal Atonement.”

South Korea’s foreign ministry said there may be an international protocol to consider, but declined to comment further, saying it was an act of a private citizen.

The question of the comfort of women, mostly Koreans forced to work in Japan’s brothels before and during World War II, and the question of whether victims were adequately compensated for a long time have been a thorn in the ties.

Japan regards the matter as “finally and irreversibly resolved” through a 2015 agreement reached by Abe and then-South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, under which Abe apologized and promised a fund to support survivors.

But the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has declared the deal flawed, in fact nullifying it.

Similar statues of girls have been set up just outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul and elsewhere to honor women.

The ties were tightened last year when Japan imposed restrictions on the export of high-tech materials to South Korea after a ruling by the South Korean court ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation to Koreans forced to work for them. during the war.