U.S. lawmaker eyes July 30 vote on Japan sex slaves
Japan in 1993 acknowledged a state role in the wartime brothel program. Historians say thousands of women -- by one estimate as many as 200,000 -- were taken to frontline brothels to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked a furor in March when he denied that there was evidence the government or military were directly involved in procuring the women.
He later apologized for their suffering and repeated that he stood by the 1993 statement -- points that the Japanese ambassador's letter to U.S. Congressional leaders stressed.
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