In July, a statue of Prime Minister ABE kneeling before a comfort woman statue installed in a private botanical garden in Korea caused a lot of controversy. Comfort women refers to women who were allegedly detained, mainly in order to provide sexual comfort to Japanese soldiers, during World War II. South Korea has built statues of comfort women and installed them, not only in front of the Japanese Embassy and Consulate, but also all over the country, inside buses and even overseas. Japan annexed Korea from 1910 up until the end of World War II in 1945. The Korean government has made use of this fact to justify their anti-Japanese policies and have made comfort women a symbol of hatred towards Japan. In “Anti-Japan Tribalism,” a book co-authored by a group of Korean professors which became a bestseller both in Korea and Japan last year, it is revealed that many comfort women were not forcibly taken, but were tricked by Korean contractors. In August this year, it was reported that a Korean former comfort women support group had paid little of the donations and grants it had received to comfort women, rather the director purchased real estate and diverted the rest of the money for her own benefit. In addition, the Korean government has not paid any compensation money received from the Japanese government to the comfort women themselves. During the period of Korea’s annexation, Japan modernized Korea, investing a huge amount of money in its infrastructure. Taiwan, which was also annexed, appreciates Japan’s former governance and, by contrast, has become pro-Japan. Although the number of Japanese people who dislike Korea is increasing due to the country’s unrelenting anti-Japan policies, Korean music, dramas, food and other aspects of Korean culture are actually loved by the Japanese, especially by young people.