A key advisory panel to Shinzo Abe published its report Thursday on Japan's modern history and postwar reconciliation, strongly criticizing the wartime "aggression" against other Asian countries but touching little on recent controversies over what is widely regarded as the prime minister's revisionist moves.
Abe has said he will use the report as a reference in drawing up his statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, which is reportedly to be issued on Aug. 14.
Whether he will use some of the same key phases as his predecessors, including "aggression" and "deep remorse" over Japan's wars and colonial rule in the 1930s and '40s, has been a focus of international attention.