Osaka Severs Sister-City Ties with San Francisco over Statue

October 3, 2018

Osaka- The city government of Osaka said Tuesday that it has sent a document to officially end its 61-year-old sister-city ties with San Francisco over a statue in the U.S. city symbolizing the issue of "comfort women" for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Speaking to reporters at the city hall, Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura reiterated criticism of the comfort women statue and its inscription reading that hundreds of thousands of women were sexually enslaved between 1931 and 1945.

"It's not based on facts. It's Japan bashing," Yoshimura said. "We shouldn't continue the sister-city relations after we lost mutual trust."

The Japanese city took a decision last December to sever the ties with San Francisco. But it refrained from sending the official documents for the breakup, following the sudden passing of the U.S. city's mayor at the time.

After new San Francisco Mayor London Breed took office in July, Osaka sent a letter requesting her to remove the statue. But the new mayor has not responded to it.

In October 1957, Osaka and San Francisco started sister-city exchanges, on the basis that the two were coastal cities of similar size. Mutual visits by city officials and students have since been paid. Jiji Press