Kono Statement of 1993

The Kono Statement refers to a statement released by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yōhei Kōno on August 4, 1993, after the conclusion of the government study that found that the Japanese Imperial Army had forced women, known as comfort women, to work in military-run brothels during World War II. The Japanese government had initially denied that the women had been coerced until this point.

In the Kono Statement, Kono acknowledged that "The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations" and "The recruitment of the comfort women was conducted mainly by private recruiters who acted in response to the request of the military." In addition, as the Kono Statement articulates, "in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc.", "at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.", and "They lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere."

His subsequent call for historical research and education aimed at remembering the issue became the basis for addressing the subject of forced prostitution in school history textbooks. It also led to the creation of the Asian Women's Fund, which provided aid and support to women who had been forced into prostitution during the war.

The Kono Statement has been the target of criticism by some conservatives in Japan. It is still debated whether the statement acknowledged that coercion had been used in the recruitment and retention of the women by the Japanese Imperial Army directly, as the recruitment was believed to be mainly conducted by private recruiting agents (both Korean and Japanese). Current Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, during his first term as Prime Minister in 2007, stated that he did not believe women were coerced by the Japanese army into working at military brothels. Nobuo Ishihara, deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time of the drafting of the Kono Statement, has stated in unsworn testimony to the National Diet that no written records verifying the accounts of the 16 women who were interviewed during the course of the investigation could be discovered. One article published in the New York Times asserts that "There is little evidence that the Japanese military abducted or was directly involved in entrapping women in Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for decades when the war began, although the women and activists who support them say the women were often deceived and forced to work against their will." However, the same article also states that, "Many were deceived with offers of jobs in factories and hospitals and then forced to provide sex for imperial soldiers in the comfort stations. In Southeast Asia, there is evidence that Japanese soldiers simply kidnapped women to work in the brothels." According to an article published by the Japanese newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, "Prostitution agents were prevalent due to the poverty and patriarchal family system. For that reason, even if the military was not directly involved, it is said it was possible to gather many women through such methods as work-related scams and human trafficking."

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