TOKYO (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Saturday apologized to South Korean President Kim Young Sam over remarks by his top spokesman about Japan's use of sex slaves during World War II.
At a lunch meeting before the start of a bilateral summit in southwestern Japan, Hashimoto repeated Tokyo's deep remorse for forcing many Asian women known as "comfort women" to serve as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.
Hashimoto told Kim, "The Japanese Government's and my stance on this issue remain unchanged," Kyodo news service reported.
The prime minister was speaking after the government's Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama criticized the planned coverage in junior high-school textbooks of Asian women forced to provide sex for wartime Japanese soldiers.
Last June, the Education Ministry approved the inclusion of accounts of "comfort women" in all seven authorized junior-high school history textbooks that will be used beginning next April.
The move followed a government statement in August of 1993 admitting that in many cases the women were recruited against their will and that at times, administrative and military personnel directly took part in the recruitment.
Kajiyama said there was a "social background" to Japan's wartime use of some 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula then under Japan's colonial rule.
Speaking to reporters at the premier's official residence Friday evening, Kajiyama said, "It is odd teaching (children) about the 'comfort women' issue without telling them about the social background to the authorized prostitution system at that time."
President Kim told Hashimoto that the Korean people were outraged by Kajiyama's remarks. "This is a very delicate issue for South Korean people," he said.
"The remarks were made at a pretty unfortunate time and they were shocking to South Korean people."
Hashimoto repeated the comments he made at a summit meeting in South Korea last June, saying there was no way for Japan to defend itself on the "comfort women" issue.
"I made it plain in Cheju Island (South Korea) that this is an issue that greatly hurt the women's honour and dignity and I expressed our deep regret and offered a heartfelt apology," he said.
The row over the "comfort women" issue and Kajiyama's statements marred the hour-long summit meeting during which Hashimoto and Kim emphasized positive areas of bilateral relations that have been frail at best since the end of World War II.