Tokyo has again been forced into damage control over issues of history as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's remarks on Japan's wartime aggression Tuesday triggered big headlines in South Korea.
"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied the fact of aggression itself in answering a question in the Upper House on April 23," read a translated article posted Wednesday on the Japanese-language website of the major South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.
The Chosun Ilbo quoted experts as saying Abe may have "denied" Japan waged a war of aggression to shed its "reputation as war criminal country" and thereby rearm and become a country "that can wage a war" again.