Japan prepared a comprehensive response to the UN CEDAW on comfort women, but it was sidelined after the Japan–Korea agreement. The truth resurfaced through oral testimony addressing Yoshida Seiji and Asahi Shimbun.

2016-02-21

The following continues the Sankei Shimbun article.
Emphasis in the text is mine.

In August last year, the Japanese government received questions from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women regarding the comfort women issue.

After that, the government continued examining its response and initially planned to submit it in mid-November.

According to government sources, by that time a draft had been prepared that was “more than ten A4 pages long and perfect in content.”

The draft response подробно described how the comfort women issue became politicized.

It referred to testimony given in February of Heisei 26 at the House of Representatives Budget Committee by Nobuo Ishihara, former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary and the top administrative official at the time of the 1993 Kono Statement, stating that there was no objective evidence to substantiate the forced recruitment of women by the military or authorities.

It also explained the testimony of Seiji Yoshida, who claimed “comfort women hunts,” and the role of the Asahi Shimbun.

However, because the volume was considered excessive, the draft was revised to be more concise.

Even so, a bold expression remained, stating that it was “deeply regrettable that erroneous factual understandings have become powerful grounds for factually incorrect descriptions in the Coomaraswamy Report submitted to the UN Human Rights Commission, as well as for expressions of concern and recommendations by treaty bodies.”

Nevertheless, the response ultimately became a “phantom answer.”

This was because the situation changed dramatically with the Japan–South Korea agreement of December 28 last year.

Under the unwritten rule that the Japan–South Korea agreement must not be undermined, the response was reworked to merely restate the contents of the press conference given by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on December 28.

This drew objections from Prime Minister’s advisor Seiichi Eto.

He stated, “The contents of the Japan–South Korea agreement alone do not answer the committee’s questions.”

On the morning of the scheduled submission date, January 22, Eto called officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to put a halt to the process.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda agreed.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to readjust the response.

As a result, it was decided that Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama would provide an oral explanation regarding Seiji Yoshida and the Asahi Shimbun, regardless of whether the committee members raised questions.

At the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women held on the 16th, Sugiyama stated at the outset that it was inappropriate to address the comfort women issue, which arose prior to Japan’s ratification of the Convention in 1985.

This immediately drew objections from committee members.

This article continues.