New Zealand axes plan for WW2 comfort women statue after Japan's protest Plans to erect a statue in New Zealand symbolising the so-called comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War Two have been rejected. The Japanese embassy had warned that the installation of the structure in a public garden in Auckland "could have a significant impact" on the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The bronze statue, which depicts a girl seated next to an empty chair, was given to New Zealand by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, a non-government group advocating against military sexual slavery. More than 200,000 women and girls, most of them Korean, were forced into prostitution to serve Japanese soldiers during the war. This estimate also includes women from mainland China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.…