Ten years have passed since The Asahi Shimbun retracted its false reporting based on Seiji Yoshida’s fabricated “forced abduction” testimony. Academic research in Korea and the U.S. now refutes the forced labor and “sex slave” narratives, while scandals within the Korean activist organization formerly known as the Korean Council have exposed misuse of donations and pro–North Korean connections. Despite these developments, anti-Japanese propaganda continues to spread globally—most recently with a comfort women statue installed in Stintino, Italy. Early expert investigations had already disproven Yoshida’s claims, but Asahi’s decades-long misreporting allowed the fiction to permeate global discourse. Correcting this misconception remains an immense challenge.

“The misunderstanding of ‘forced abduction’ remains unresolved—Ten years since Asahi retracted its comfort women reports—Korea and the U.S. advance research denying the claims—Anti-Japanese propaganda spreads through comfort women statues—First published in 1982: doubts about the ‘Yoshida testimony’ raised from the early stage.”
August 5, 2024

The following is from today’s Sankei Shimbun.
Regarding the comfort women statue installed on public land in Stintino, Italy, this is an utterly absurd fact that most Japanese citizens, myself included, learned for the first time.
Readers know that I not only established a branch office in Rome but have long loved Italy, as well as Italian cinema represented by Fellini.
However, this Stintino—a city I had never heard of—is a foolish municipality with intelligence at the lowest level in human history, a city that disgraces the name of Italy.
This must be read not only by the Japanese people but by people around the world.

The misunderstanding of “forced abduction” remains unresolved.
Ten years since Asahi retracted its comfort women reporting.
Korea and the United States advance research denying the claims.

It has now been ten years since The Asahi Shimbun acknowledged that the testimony of Seiji Yoshida—who claimed that women in Korea were forcibly taken as comfort women during the war—was false and retracted the related articles.
During this time, research denying the theory of forced abduction has been published in Korea and the U.S., and even in Korea, criticism of former comfort women support groups—long considered taboo—has begun to surface.
Meanwhile, misunderstandings surrounding the comfort women issue remain unresolved, and correcting this “fiction” that has spread worldwide is proving extremely difficult.

In July 2019, the academic volume Anti-Japan Tribalism, which scientifically investigated Japan–Korea historical issues, was published in Korea and became a bestseller.
“It was nothing more than a civilian licensed prostitution system that was militarily mobilized and organized.”
Co-editor Lee Young-hoon (former Seoul National University professor and president of the Syngman Rhee School) explained the comfort women system this way, pointing out that the foundations of the forced abduction theory rested on Yoshida’s lies and on flawed testimonies of former comfort women.
He dismissed the claim that there were 200,000 comfort women as “a baseless and preposterous theory,” denied the “sex slave” narrative, and criticized “the ignorance and prejudice of activists and researchers.”

In the United States in 2020, Harvard professor J. Mark Ramseyer published a paper demonstrating that comfort women were not sex slaves but had signed contracts with brothel operators involving advance payments and labor periods.
Lee and others were subjected to emotional attacks from media and academics.
Ramseyer responded to American critics by saying they “seem to be taking Yoshida’s claims at face value.”

A major political development during these ten years was the agreement between the Japanese and South Korean governments on the comfort women issue.
On December 28, 2015, then–Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met in Seoul, confirming a “final and irreversible resolution” and agreeing to refrain from criticizing each other “in the United Nations and the international community.”
Under the agreement, the Japanese government contributed 1 billion yen to the “Reconciliation and Healing Foundation,” established by the South Korean government to support former comfort women.
Of the 47 surviving comfort women at the time of the agreement, 35 accepted cash payments from the foundation.

However, after the Moon Jae-in administration replaced the Park Geun-hye administration, South Korea nullified the agreement and announced the dissolution of the foundation.
The remaining Japanese contribution—about 5.9 billion won (640 million yen)—remains unsettled.

Anti-Japanese propaganda spreads through comfort women statues.

“Yun Mi-hyang is pro–North Korea and subservient to North Korea, using the comfort women issue to conduct anti-state and anti-Korean activities.”
This statement was made at an international symposium on the comfort women issue held in Nagatachō, Tokyo, in July.
Chu Ok-soon, who demands the removal of comfort women statues installed by the Korean group “Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance” (formerly the Korean Council), criticized former chairperson Yun Mi-hyang.

The group, formerly the Korean Council, has held weekly Wednesday protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul since January 1992, using the UN and the U.S. Congress to spread anti-Japanese movements and internationalize the comfort women narrative.

Internal conflict erupted within the organization.
In May 2020, former comfort woman Lee Yong-soo, who had long been involved in its activities, accused the group of misusing donations, saying, “For 30 years I was deceived and exploited,” according to the Chosun Ilbo.
This triggered revelations of financial scandals and the group’s connections with North Korea.
Yun Mi-hyang was convicted in the first and second trials for embezzlement of donations.

Though criticism of the group—once taboo in Korea—became possible, it continues its anti-Japanese activism.
In June of this year, at the group’s proposal, a comfort women statue was installed on public land in Stintino, Italy, with a plaque stating that “large numbers of women were abducted and enslaved, a crime comparable to the Holocaust.”

First published in 1982—doubts about the “Yoshida testimony” raised from the early stage.

The Asahi Shimbun ran a special feature titled “Considering the Comfort Women Issue” in its August 5 and 6, 2014 editions, reviewing its reporting.
On the 5th, it revealed that Yoshida had been reported “16 times as far as confirmed” and acknowledged that his testimony was “judged to be false,” retracting 16 articles (later adding 2 more in December).

The Asahi first reported Yoshida’s forced abduction claims in the September 2, 1982 Osaka edition, describing his lecture in Osaka: “In early summer of 1943, over one week, we ‘rounded up’ 200 young Korean women on Jeju Island.”

Doubts regarding forced abduction testimonies had existed from early on.
Modern historian Hata Ikuhiko conducted a field investigation on Jeju Island in March 1992, where local journalists and elders unanimously denied Yoshida’s testimony.
The Sankei Shimbun reported Hata’s findings in its April 30, 1992 edition.

The Asahi did not apologize on the page where it retracted the articles.
A third-party committee reviewing the Asahi’s reporting criticized the lack of apology, saying: “Overly conscious of opposing opinions and other newspapers’ critiques of Asahi, the response failed to face its role as a news organization and its general readers. This is not how a newspaper should behave.”

Sankei asked The Asahi Shimbun how it now views the retraction of the Yoshida-related articles ten years ago.
The Asahi responded: “Our current view remains unchanged from what we announced at the time on our print and online platforms. Following the recommendations of the third-party committee, published in December 2014, we continue to pursue responsible reporting. We aim to fulfill our duties by becoming a trusted newspaper.”