Kono Statement

Japan, August 4, 1993: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the "comfort women" The statement that admitted the Japanese military's involvement in the wartime "comfort women" system, after a government study, and offered sincere apologies and remorse. It led to the Asian Women's Fund, which began its work in 1995 as a joint effort of the government and the public and closed in March 2007. The Fund is where the criticism concentrates: it paid atonement money raised from private donations and carried apologies, but it did not satisfy survivors and campaigners who insisted the Japanese state itself should accept legal responsibility and pay compensation directly. That objection has never gone away.