Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denied Monday overseas speculation that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might be considering issuing a new statement to supersede the key government apology over the "comfort women," the girls and women forced to provide sex to Japanese troops during the war, rejecting a proposal from a close Abe aide.
"That's impossible. I've never heard such an idea from the prime minister," Suga said at a daily news conference, referring to a proposal from Koichi Hagiuda, a special adviser to Abe in the prime minister's capacity as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"We have repeatedly said we uphold (the 1993 Kono statement). The prime minister has also said he will not revise it. That explains it all," Suga said.
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