From January 11, 1997 to May 1, 2002, Japan conducted a comfort women apology and compensation project in Korea called the Asian Women’s Fund.
Based on national funds raised by the government and donations from the Japanese people, medical expenses and welfare projects for comfort women were promoted, and an apology letter signed by the Japanese Prime Minister who was in office during the project period was delivered.
https://www.kr.emb-japan.go.jp/relation/relationcomfortwoman.pdf
2.
At first, the Korean government also had a friendly stance toward the Asian Women’s Fund, but as feminist groups and strange private organizations intervened, they led the opposition movement and criticized former comfort women victims who received an apology. The logic put forward by activist groups is that they should receive legal compensation through National Assembly legislation.
https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/23782418
3.
The legal compensation claimed by the movement group is an obvious condition that the other side will never receive because there is a claims agreement under the 1965 Korea-Japan Basic Treaty. However, the movement group’s logic is that if this condition is not accepted, all apologies must be rejected.
4.
Among the comfort women parties, there were those who would accept Japan’s apology without legal compensation, but such opinions were ignored. In fact, 61 of the comfort women survivors at the time accepted the fund’s apology and compensation.
https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/003/0006907530
5.
The reality at the time was that the media could not even dare to criticize such activist groups and was too busy being swayed by them.
6.
Later, in the 2020s, Korean media and researchers also began to reevaluate the Asian Women’s Fund.
Although it is not a legal responsibility, the Asian Women’s Fund was created by the Japanese government to take moral responsibility and is a means of taking responsibility. In fact, the Asian Women’s Fund is a project that came about through the Japanese government’s cabinet understanding.
(Reference material)
Japan Wants to Apologize / Written by Yasuaki Onuma
Murayama’s discourse revisited / Dong-A Ilbo 2020.06.27 article
Message Source:
Asian Women’s Fund website
https://www.awf.or.jp/k3/donators.html
Fundraising video source:
https://www.awf.or.jp/k6/15-1.html
https://www.awf.or.jp/movie/awfvtr.wmv
Recall from a fund official:
https://www.awf.or.jp/k3/oralhistory-05.html