The following is a quotation from "History Wars", the Sankei Shimbun.
http://www.sankei-books.co.jp/m2_books/2015/9784819112673.html
The location was the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in central Tokyo, in March of 2015. At a press conference Ikuhiko Hata, the top Japanese expert on the comfort women issue and a leading scholar on Japanese contemporary history, was faced with a question raised by an Associated Press reporter as follows: “In recent years there have been efforts to revise [the facts regarding] the comfort women issue. What is the aim of these efforts?” Hata replied, “For Japan, the issue of the comfort women is over. However Koreans and some Japanese NGOs do not want this issue to end. It has become a completely political issue (it is no longer an academic discussion).”
For many years within Japan there has been public debate over the facts and circumstances regarding the comfort women, as well as currently what the issue is about. The question of how the Japanese case differs from similar instances around the world has also been pursued. Conservative commentators beginning with those of the Sankei Shimbun have pointed out absolutely that there is no evidence of coercive recruitment of women by the Imperial Army or other government authorities.
On the other hand, left-wing and liberal-oriented observers, beginning with those of Asahi Shimbun newspaper, have asserted in support of the Korean accusations against japan that these women were forcibly recruited by Japanese authorities and placed in the position of sex slaves. They base their argument on the testimony of Seiji Yoshida who claimed to be a former Yamaguchi Prefecture Patriot Laborers Mobilization Chief (Shimonoseki Branch), and testified that he and others forcibly rounded up women on Korea’s Jeju Island and turned them into comfort women. Incidentally, Yoshida is the only person on the Japanese side who testified that he himself forcibly recruited comfort women.
However, before long, more objective observers won this argument. The Asahi Shimbun, after a long and hard search, could not find any documentary evidence or trustworthy testimony of forced recruitment. As a result, its editors have shifted the argument from whether there was or was not forced recruitment to the independent issue of "women's human rights."
The report entitled, "Japanese Army Prisoner interrogation Report #49," which was compiled by the U.S. Office of War Information, Psychological Warfare Team in 1944, said the following about the issue. The report was compiled from interviews of Korean comfort women taken by the U.S. Army in that year in Burma (present-day Myanmar):
"A 'comfort girl' is nothing more than a prostitute or 'professional camp follower' attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers."
"The amount of food and goods provided for them is not large, but because they receive an ample amount of money to buy the things they want, their living circumstances are good."
"While in Burma, the girls enjoyed taking part in sporting events, picnics, variety shows, and attending dinners together with the soldiers. The girls had photographs and were allowed to go out shopping in town, too."
"The comfort girls were given the right to refuse waiting on customers. The refusal to wait on customers occurred often in cases when customers were drunk."
The true situation of comfort women as described above has already become widely known in Japan. Owing to the spread of the Internet and the fact that now anyone can access a wide range of information, the false reports and misinformation discharged by the media have become more exposed to the strict, discerning eyes of the Japanese public.