Japanese Mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, said he urges the U.S. military to "enforce strict discipline" to its servicemen in Japan. He said he is urging the U.S. military to "be more responsible" due to its rising number of sex offenses against servicewomen in its ranks, The Japan Times reports.

"The situation within the U.S. military concerning sexual assaults against women soldiers has been horrible and President (Barack) Obama is outraged about it," Hashimoto said.

The Osaka mayor has received global criticism for his brash comments regarding "comfort women," or sex slaves from South Korea, China, and the Philippines during World War II, AP reports.  Hashimoto said he believed comfort women were necessary to maintain military discipline and to give soldiers relief.

This comment enraged many, including two former Korean sex slaves in their 80s, Kim Bok-dong and Kil Won-ok. They cancelled a meeting with the Japanese mayor and called for his resignation.

Hashimoto refuses to retract his statement.

However, he has apologized to the American people and the military for his comments that U.S. personnel in Okinawa should make use of the local sex industry to avoid committing sexual offenses, The Japan Times reports.

"I understand that my remark could be construed as an insult to the U.S. forces and to the American people" and was inappropriate, he said at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, the Huffington Post reports. "I retract this remark and express an apology."