Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday agreed to continue watching the South Korean government’s response to Tokyo’s concerns over a recently installed “comfort women” statue before sending recalled ambassador Yasumasa Nagamine back to Seoul.
Last week the government temporarily recalled the ambassador in protest against the statue’s installation by a South Korean civic group in front of the Japanese consulate-general in the southern South Korean city of Busan late last month.
Yasuhiro Morimoto, the Japanese Consulate General in Busan, was also called back the same day.
The statue, regarded as a symbol of the Korean women who were forced to work at Japanese military brothels before and during World War II, is the second of its kind set up in front of a Japanese diplomatic facility in South Korea, after one was erected in 2011 in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
It is understood the Foreign Ministry believes that the ambassador should be quickly sent back to South Korea and engaged in negotiations with Seoul on the controversial statue.
