Japan is ramping up pressure on a district office in Busan to revoke its approval for the installment of a statue commemorating Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery near the Japanese consulate in the city.

According to Busan's Dong district office on Tuesday, it approved a request for road occupation for the statue by a local civic group last Tuesday.

The approval came four years after the group erected the statue near the Japanese consulate in protest of Seoul and Tokyo's 2015 agreement on wartime sexual slavery.

Last Thursday, the Japanese consul general visited the district office to demand an annulment of the approval, claiming it violates the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and would seriously damage Seoul-Tokyo ties.

The district office says it will not revoke the approval.

The civic group plans to hold a press conference on Tuesday to strongly condemn Japan's move, accusing the consul general of interfering in domestic affairs.