Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida described as “unacceptable” on Tuesday a plan by a group of South Korean local assembly members to erect a “comfort women” memorial statue on an uninhabited pair of islets in the Sea of Japan controlled by South Korea but claimed by Japan. The assembly members announced on Monday they plan to erect the statue on the islets – called – according to South Korean media, following weeks of heightened tensions over the issue of the women procured for Japanese military brothels before and during the second world war. “In the first place, Japan’s position is that Takeshima is our inherent territory, both under international law and historically,” Kishida told a press conference. “In light of this position, we cannot accept [the plan],” Kishida said. A statue dedicated to the women outside Japan’s embassy in Seoul, depicting a girl in traditional Korean clothing sitting beside an empty chair, has irked Japan since it was erected in 2011.
