Ties between Japan and South Korea have been strained by a range of feuds, including one over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to a Tokyo shrine for the war dead which Seoul, 成人影片 like China, sees as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. A man walks past advertisements for 亞洲色情 comic books and compact discs on the street in Tokyo. In addition to a territorial row over two tiny islands, many South Koreans feel Japan has not squarely faced its wartime past, including the brutal 1910-1945 rule of the Korean peninsula.

Japan committed indescribable wrongdoings by forcing women from South Korea and 成人 elsewhere to serve as sex slaves to its wartime troops, former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama said yesterday. Kishi's defence counsel had argued that an article in Japan's penal code, which prohibits the sale and distribution of obscene literature, violated the constitution which guarantees freedom of expression.

Education Minister Nariaki Nakayama was quoted by media over the weekend as saying the term "comfort women," a euphemism for the sex slaves, did not exist during the war and it was good the term had disappeared from school textbooks A comic book which depicts genitalia and sexual acts in two thirds of its content was ruled obscene in a landmark court case which has sparked a debate on freedom of expression in Japan. Kishi immediately appealed in the Tokyo High Court.

The book, consisting of eight short stories, was priced at 920 yen (8.7 dollars) Eminent academics and critics had testified that it was not a matter for the state to judge obscenity and restricting expression was unconstitutional. In a bid to narrow the gap over history, the two governments launched a joint study four years ago, but a report on its results issued on Friday showed the two sides were sharply at odds on many subjects, including the sex slaves issue. Two people -- the cartoonist and the chief editor of the comic book -- have been fined 500,000 yen (4,700 dollars) each.

Four Japanese basketball players have been sent home from the Asian Games for allegedly paying prostitutes for sex, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) said on Monday. Jun Byung-hun, a spokesman for South Korea's ruling Uri Party, said on Sunday. Japan apologized again on Monday for H片 the suffering of women who served as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II, a day after comments by a cabinet minister drew an angry reaction in South Korea. The Tokyo District Court found Monotori Kishi, a 54-year-old publisher, guilty of distributing obscene printed material and handed him a one-year prison term suspended for three years.

Japan's top government spokesman sought to contain any further damage, saying Tokyo was sorry for the sex slaves. But the term "comfort women" is set to disappear from many government-approved history textbooks for junior high schools from next year, Japanese media have reported. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said The two sides have been unable to set a date for a regular summit meeting between Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, 亞洲美女 which they had agreed to hold by the end of June.