SEOUL, Nov 23 (Reuters) - A South Korean appellate court on Thursday ordered Japan to compensate a group of 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, overturning a lower court ruling that dismissed the case and prompting a stern protest from Tokyo.

  • @SalamendaciousOP
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    18 months ago

    So what have you been hearing? Are people supportive? In denial? Angry?

    • bedrooms
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      8 months ago

      Caveat: I said yes because in the past they have reported, and I don’t see a reason not to. If I check the internet, though, I don’t see an article. Yet.

      Now. The atmosphere here is somewhat complicated. The Japanese internet space is a solid ultraconservative shit hole. They are openly racists who spew hate speech. Even Yahoo Comments, the biggest news website here with user comments, have absolutely no moderation.

      Accordingly, 99.9% of the net space is full of denialism. They also point at the JPN-SK agreement Abe made, which declared that SK will not demand money from Japan for the comfort women problem.

      In reality, the agreement apparently had flaws in wording etc., and we also need to take into account that SK Supreme Court is sometimes criticized by news media for being influenced by national sentiments. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t say that’s necessarily a bad thing given that the Japanese tactics on this issue has been insincere.

      Outside the internet space, it’s even more complex. Ultraconservatives say media are pro-South Korea. But they’ll say that unless they get their racist way, so it’s not credible. It’s so sensitive it’s hard to find a balanced analysis on this one. My feeling is that they are rather neutral. They just report and silently move on without taking sides, in my eyes.

      The LDP… they are a mess. A mixture of right-leaning centrists and, again, ultraconservatives.

      If I look at the general public, I don’t see any group or person siding with south korea. It’s kind of understandable. Most people here distance themselves from politics. Ask them what they think, and they’ll just say “it’s too difficult to me”, and they’re just being honest. They don’t think comfort women were sex slaves. They also don’t think they were voluntarily cooperating. These people just don’t have an opinion. They never read up on anything political. Just watch TV, work and sleep.

      • @camr_on
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        28 months ago

        Thanks for providing an insightful comment. Seems like politics follows a pattern everywhere. Sounds like it must be very difficult to go against the political grain in Japan

      • @[email protected]
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        18 months ago

        I wish Japanese people would realize that “not having an opinion” is the same as being rather strongly in favor of whoever is currently in power.