The government's failure to pass the fund into law when it was established in 1995 allowed civic and political groups to put pressure on victims in South Korea not to accept assistance until Japan took full legal responsibility for compensation, Haruki Wada told reporters in Tokyo.

"It was never an ideal solution," Wada said through a translator Friday, adding that fewer than half the women eligible for compensation in South Korea received assistance because of the pressure.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stirred controversy on March 1 when he said no evidence exists of coercion by Japan's military in providing so-called "comfort women" to Japanese soldiers on the frontlines. A resolution tabled at the U.S. House of Representatives calling on Japan to issue an official apology refers to the Asian Women's Fund as an example of Japan's failure to make an unequivocal apology to the victims.

Japanese historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki, in his 1995 book `Comfort Women,' estimates as many as 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia and Burma served as sex slaves in 2,000 so-called comfort stations across Asia.

The fund was disbanded on March 31 after receiving 4.6 billion yen (US$38.7 million) from the government and 570 million yen from private citizens.

The fund provided assistance to 364 people in the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands, and built 69 elderly care facilities in Indonesia, Wada said.

It was unable to operate in China, North Korea, East Timor, Malaysia and Myanmar for political reasons, Wada said.

The women who received compensation were "held against their will in soldier's barracks and were raped repeatedly," Wada said. "They were, in the true meaning of the word, sex slaves."

Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who headed the fund, said on March 6 the government should continue to provide support for the former sex slaves after the fund closed, the Japan Times reported at the time.

Murayama said the atonement money and welfare support paid out by the fund will not cure the damage to the victims, the report said.

Park Yuha, Author of "In Praise of Reconciliation" and "Overcoming Anti-Japanese Nationalism," said nationalism, widespread misunderstanding and misinformation both about the fund and the sexual slavery issue remains a barrier to reconciliation between Japan and its neighbors.

Park pointed out that evidence shows South Korea also used "comfort women" during the 1950-53 Korean War, while the involvement of ethnic Koreans in the Japanese army is another issue that is largely ignored in the debate.

"The comfort women issue has evolved over time into a more ethnic and nationalistic issue," Park said Friday through a translator.