A diplomatic source says the Japanese government ordered its diplomats to lobby for the dismantlement of a monument memorializing Asian victims of sexual slavery in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

A source in Washington said Tuesday that the Japanese Foreign Ministry gave the order to the Japanese consul general in New York. The monument was established two years ago in memory of Asian women forced to serve as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during World War Two.

The ministry also instructed the consul general to actively protest efforts by Korean Americans in New York to erect similar monuments throughout the U.S. and to contest the number of sex slaves and words engraved on the statue in New Jersey.