UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has criticized remarks by Japan’s Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto who claimed that Japan’s military brothels were a necessity during the second World War.

In an interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun on Sunday, Ban said the international community does not comprehend Hashimoto’s remarks, adding that Japan must provide considerate support to people who suffered wartime hardship. Ban was in Yokohama to attend the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

Ban also said that visits by Japanese Cabinet members and lawmakers to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead including Class-A war criminals, is drawing negative reactions from Japan’s neighbors.