A former senior official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry says the issue of wartime sexual slavery is not a bilateral issue between South Korea and Japan but an international matter.

The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported Director of the Institute for World Affairs at Kyoto Sangyo University, Kazuhiko Togo, made the remark Tuesday. Togo served as the head of the Treaties Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

He expressed concerns about moves in Japan to amend a 1993 statement by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which acknowledged and apologized for the forced recruitment of sex slaves by Japan's military during World War Two.

Togo cited that Americans or Europeans conjure up the image of their wives, daughters or sisters being forcibly dragged to military brothels when they think about wartime sexual slavery. He said Japan’s explanation that such slavery was an inevitable system of wartime is not widely accepted.

Togo said the wartime sexual slavery issue came to have balance with Kono’s statement, adding that the Japanese government should accept all demands by former sex slaves based on the 1993 apology.

Last Wednesday, Togo had expressed concerns during a lecture that Japan would come under harsh criticism from the international community if it amends the Kono statement.