Japan's biggest newspaper apologized in print Friday for using the term "sex slaves" in its English-language edition to describe Asian women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during World War II.

The conservative Yomiuri said in articles in English and Japanese that it was inappropriate to have used the phrase and others implying the women were coerced to provide sex. The newspaper identified 97 articles, including 85 of its own, with "sex slaves" or similar expressions between 1992 and 2013.

It said non-Japanese people have difficulty understanding the term "comfort women," used in Japan to describe the women, so its English-language edition added explanations improperly suggesting that "coercion by the Japanese government or the army was an objective fact."