Comfort women statues spreading around the world: Germany decides to permanently install one, raising concerns for Japanese government

A statue symbolizing the comfort women issue will be installed at a museum in Bonn, western Germany. Similar statues are being erected in other countries by Korean groups, but the inscription on the statue reads, "Japan
Many of the statues contain false statements, such as "Japan's military forcibly took countless girls and women from the Asia-Pacific region and made them sexual slaves," and the Japanese government continues to call for the removal of statues spread across various countries.
In Germany, a statue erected on public land by a Korean civic group in the Mitte district of Berlin was ordered to be removed by the district, but the local administrative court has not yet ruled on its removal until September this year.
The statue, which will now be installed at the Bonn museum, has not been removed because the government allowed it to continue to exist. The local Korean civic group, the Korea Council of Korea, said it will be able to install it permanently.
The statue is located on museum property and the museum has given its approval for its installation, so they claim that there is no problem with it.
Since the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery (Korean Council) set it up in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in December 2011, it has spread to countries around the world.
Not only does it violate Korean law, but its installation in front of the Japanese Embassy also violates the Vienna Convention, which guarantees the dignity and function of diplomatic missions. For this reason, the Japanese government has decided to take legal action against the statue being installed in front of the Japanese Embassy.
The government has expressed its regret since then and has repeatedly called on the South Korean government to remove the statue, but the statue remains in place to this day. A South Korean government survey found that there are more than 150 comfort women statues in South Korea.
However, while the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan continues to hold protests against the Japanese government around the statue, in recent years conservative groups in South Korea have been raising their voices in opposition to the statue and calling for its removal.
Similar statues have been erected by local Korean civic groups not only in South Korea but also in other countries, including the United States, Germany, and Italy. The first statue to be erected outside of South Korea was in July 2013 in the western US city of Kathmandu.
Glendale, California. According to a report by the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, the movement to install these cameras became more active in the United States in the 2010s, and is shifting to Europe, including Germany, in the 2020s.
In Germany, where it has now been decided that a comfort women statue will be permanently installed on the museum grounds, the first comfort women statue was installed in a park in Wiesent, southern Bavaria, in March 2017.
It is believed that there are currently five comfort women statues in Germany, and one of them was removed in Berlin's Mitte district in September 2020 by the local Korean civic group "Korea Council."
It was installed on public land in the district near the council's secretariat. At the time, there were already two statues in Germany, but both were on private property. This was the first time that one had been installed in a public place.
The Japanese government lobbied the German side to have it removed, and in October of the same year, the mayor of Mitte issued an order to remove it. However, the council said, "The statue is a depiction of sexual violence against women during wartime.
The mayor eventually withdrew the order to remove the statue. However, it was clear that the statue symbolized the comfort women issue, and the Japanese government continued to ask the German side to remove it.
In the 2015 Japan-Korea agreement that confirmed the "final and irreversible resolution" of the comfort women issue, the two countries promised to refrain from condemnation or criticism in the international community, and have repeatedly requested that the statue symbolizing the comfort women issue be removed.
The establishment of the facility in a third country is also incompatible with this position. The district ordered the relocation to private land in September last year, but the Korea Council filed an application for a provisional injunction to have the order overturned.
The government approved this and allowed it to remain installed until September 28th of this year. Meanwhile, the comfort women statue that was installed in front of the Nazi Archives Center, a museum in Cologne, Germany, was removed from the museum in Bonn as mentioned above.
The statue was transferred to the Women's Museum and will be permanently installed there. An unveiling ceremony was held at the museum on the 28th. According to a report by the South Korean news agency Yonhap News, the director of the museum said, "The statue of a girl of peace (comfort women)
"The statue of a woman (another name for the statue of a woman) is an important symbol for our museum, and even its name has a lot of meaning," he said. However, according to the Sankei Shimbun, the inscription installed with the statue reads, "The Japanese military killed many women.
The Japanese government maintains that "there was no forced abduction of comfort women by the Japanese military," and this statue will now be permanently installed at the Bonn museum.
Regarding the move, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya expressed concern on the 27th, saying, "It is incompatible with our government's position and the efforts we have made so far. It is extremely unfortunate."