Overview
- The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, which voted Tuesday, denied permission for the statue at Barry's Point Reserve in Takapuna.
- The board said the reserve was not an appropriate site after a formal consultation drew 673 submissions and more opposition than support.
- Japan’s ambassador warned in a submission that the memorial could deepen community division and harm Japan–New Zealand ties, and officials said Tokyo made formal representations.
- Organisers of the memorial expressed disappointment and said they would keep working on remembrance efforts for survivors of wartime sexual violence.
- The proposed bronze figure, gifted by a South Korean advocacy group for a Korean cultural garden, would have honoured women forced into sexual slavery by Imperial Japan during the 1930s and 1940s.