War crimes catch Abe on the wrong foot

Japan's conflict with its Asian neighbors over the denial of its wartime atrocities escalated again after a high-ranking Japanese official denied on Oct 21 that the country's imperial army ran a sex slave racket during World War II.

Addressing a parliamentary committee, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denied that the imperial Japanese army abducted and enslaved more than 200,000 "comfort women" from Asian countries to "serve" in its military brothels during World War II.

Suga's remark goes against the 1993 acknowledgment of such crimes by the Japanese government. It is a renewed attempt by the current administration to whitewash one of Japan's most heinous war crimes, and echoes the rhetoric resorted to by Japan's nationalist politicians and media tycoons in a bid to revise the country's pacifist Constitution.