GENEVA - A UN human rights investigator said yesterday that Japan should accept full legal responsibility for its soldiers brutally abusing female Asian sex slaves during the second World War. Ms Radhikn Coomaraswamy, UN special rapporteur on violence against women, also urged Japan to make a public apology to surviving victims and pay them compensation.
But the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, swiftly signalled that Tokyo would deny the charges and was not prepared to make financial restitution.