Japan protests Prostitution

Demonstrators are to stage protests outside Japan's embassies in France, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, the organisers of the symbolic forum said Tuesday in Tokyo.

Historians have estimated that about 200,000 women were forced as so-called "comfort women" to be prostitutes for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Most of the women came from areas conquered and occupied by the Japanese, including Korea, the Philippines and what is now Taiwan.

Symbolic trials are scheduled to be held December 8-12 in Tokyo of about 30 Japanese military officers and government officials allegedly involved in the comfort women system. The trial court, known as the Womens' International War Crime Tribunal, has no authority to punish anyone for war crimes. Its goal will be the recognition of such crimes and the payment of direct monetary damages to the victims, the organisers said.

About 80 former comfort women from North Korea, China and other countries are expected to take part in the proceedings, with legal experts to serve as prosecutors and a non-Japanese lawyer acting as the chief judge who will issue a symbolic judgment on the final day of the trial.

The symbolic tribunal will also focus on alleged cover-ups of evidence of the forced sexual slavery system by the Japanese government.

The Japanese government has continually argued that all claims for damages were regulated by treaties signed after World War II. Claimants have rejected payments from a privately initiated fund and instead want direct damages from the goverment.

(la/dpa)