Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet will maintain the Diet-endorsed 1995 apology issued by then-Prime Minister Tomoiichi Murayama over Japan's wartime aggression, but offer a separate "future-oriented" statement, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a group of reporters Friday.
Many observers were watching to see if the hawkish Abe may try to revise or water down Murayama's straightforward apology issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.
During an interview with The Japan Times and other media outlets, Suga, Abe's right-hand man, said the Abe administration intends to uphold the Murayama statement.