The International Review of Law and Economics(IRLE) has refused a request by academics to retract a controversial paper by Harvard Law School professor John Mark Ramseyer arguing that victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery were willing prostitutes.

The Dutch academic publishing company, Elsevier, which produces the journal covering the intersection of law and economics, said on Thursday that it reached the decision regarding Ramseyer’s paper titled “Contracting for sex in the Pacific War” that it published in the IRLE in 2020.

In the paper, Ramseyer describes comfort women as prostitutes who worked on a contractual basis and could negotiate for wages, a claim that was criticized by fellow academics including colleagues at Harvard.

The journal said it reached the decision not to withdraw the paper as it found no violations by Ramseyer of either its code of ethics or Elsevier’s related regulations.

However, the journal did decide to keep the “expression of concern” notice issued for the paper two years ago. The notice is issued to warn readers that the paper may contain a possible problem in terms of credibility.