GENEVA - JAPAN was urged yesterday by friends and critics in the United Nations Human Rights Council to abolish the death penalty and take concrete steps to settle the long-standing issue of wartime 'comfort women'.
In a review of the Asian power's rights performance, Japan was also accused of mistreating minorities and failing to give equal treatment to women, and urged to improve its handling of immigration and set up a national human rights body.
In response, Japan said it could not drop the death penalty because public opinion favoured it for 'extremely vicious crimes'.
It also said it had expressed apologies and remorse over 'comfort women' and was 'in good faith' on the issue.
As for gender equality and treatment of foreign migrants and workers, Tokyo said it was working to improve related legislation.
The calls for ending, or at least suspending, capital punishment came from Britain, France, Portugal and Luxembourg and a host of other European and Latin American countries which maintain close relations with Tokyo.
Portugal told the 53-member council that use of capital punishment in Japan was growing, saying that 46 people were sentenced to death last year, the biggest number since 1980.
Luxembourg said there had been 20 hangings since the end of 2006.
The Japanese delegation said the government had no figures on executions or death sentences and could not confirm those cited by the European Union states, all of which have long ago abandoned capital punishment.
Appeals on the issue of 'comfort women' - the more than 200,000 women in East Asian countries forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers in World War II - came from South Korea, France and the Netherlands, among others.
North Korea said the wartime practice - widespread mainly on the Korean peninsula and in China - was a 'crime against humanity' and declared that Japan should bring the perpetrators to justice and compensate the victims.
In a less accusatory tone, South Korea called on Japan to 'respond sincerely' to calls from UN human rights bodies over recent years to address the sex slave issue more comprehensively.
Last year both the United States Congress and the Canadian Parliament passed resolutions calling for a formal Japanese apology over the issue - a move criticised by Japan as not helpful to relations with its two North American allies.
Japan acknowledged in 1993 that there had been a state role in forcing Korean and Chinese women into military brothels, and in 1995 it set up a fund with private contributions to provide compensation to survivors.
But many refused to accept the money, saying that the compensation should come directly from the Japanese government in recognition of its responsibility.
Nationalist groups in Japan say that there were no sex slaves and that the women were prostitutes.
