Mayor Hashimoto defends himself

On two consecutive days (May 27 & 28) the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan hosted two press conferences about the controversial remarks of Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party) Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto. This report from the Shingetsu News Agency shows key highlights.

You can find videos of the entire Hashimoto press conference HERE. Note, it is difficult to figure out the order of the video segments. This ONE is the first segment of the press conference.

Mayor Hashimoto felt that his initial remarks were distorted and that the Comfort Women system was: 1) a government system, 2) a violation of human rights, but the women were not abducted by government forces.

Although there were rumors that Hashimoto would link his remarks to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's very similar views on the Comfort Women, he did not.

Shingo Nishimura, a Japan Restoration Party lawmaker who was forced to resign from the LDP in 1999 for calling for Japan's consideration of nuclear weapons, suggested on May 17 that many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. He said "Tell the South Koreans in downtown Osaka streets, 'You're comfort women, right?'". The comment had him expelled from his new party the following day.