At least 39 so-called "industrial comfort stations" were operated near munitions industrial facilities in Japan where Korean laborers were forcibly mobilized during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Mainichi Shimbun reported today (October 12).

According to the newspaper, a team including Professor Tonomura Masaru of the University of Tokyo and the Korea Museum (a nonprofit organization located in Shinjuku, Tokyo) confirmed these findings through literature and field investigations.

The investigation revealed that at least 39 industrial comfort stations (corporate comfort stations) existed near coal mines and other mines across the country, where a significant portion of the roughly 700,000 forcibly mobilized Korean laborers were deployed.

The women forced to service the laborers at these facilities were also of Korean descent.

Major locations where these facilities were set up include Hokkaido, Fukuoka, and the Hashima (also known as Battleship Island) coal mine in Nagasaki Prefecture.

As Korean laborers repeatedly attempted to escape harsh working conditions, the Japanese imperial government and corporations converted Korean restaurants and other establishments into industrial comfort stations—exclusive prostitution facilities for Koreans—and encouraged their use as part of "labor management measures."

A 1945 paper submitted to the Coal Control Association, a state-controlled policy institution of Japan at the time, explicitly stated, "To put it simply, special comfort stations are sexual solution centers," adding, "About 10 Korean women should be assigned per 1,000 Korean laborers to prevent escapes and boost the motivation for increased production."

The Korea Museum explained, "A combination of misogyny and ethnic discrimination operated behind the scheme of assigning Korean women to Korean laborers as if allocating them."

It was also found that many young girls in their teens were among the women mobilized to entertain workers at the sites.