U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee will take up a resolution next week, calling on Japan to acknowledge formally and accept responsibility for sexually enslaving women during World War II, The Hill reported on Wednesday.

Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recently said at a fundraiser in Los Angles that the resolution on the so-called "comfort women" currently has 140 persons to support and will be marked up by the committee next Tuesday, according to the report.

The "mark-up" means the committee will allow lawmakers to debate, amend and possibly vote to send the resolution to the full House.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda, said the government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as the "comfort women" issue.

It also urges the Japanese prime minister to make a public apology, calling on the Japanese government to refute any claims that the event never happened and tell future generations of "this horrible crime."

An estimated 200,000 women were forced to serve as sex slaves, known as "comfort women," for Japanese forces during World War II, and most of them came from countries invaded by Japan at that time.

However, many Japanese politicians have been constantly denying the crime.

Last week, a group of Japanese politicians and academics took out an ad in The Washington Post, saying there is no proof women were forced into sexual enslavement.

The move backfired and sparked furors in many Asian countries and among Asian communities in the United States.

U.S. congressional sources said after the incident that many U.S. lawmakers who were ambivalent about the resolution now support it.