Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday he wants to reflect his government's position in a statement to be released in August on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, signaling that the wording of a 1995 statement — which offered apologies for Japan's wartime aggression in Asia — could be changed.
"Rather than whether to use the wording we have repeated, I want to issue (a statement) in light of how the Abe government considers the matter," he said on a TV program aired Sunday morning.
Asian countries as well as the United States are closely watching for whether the new statement will stick to a 1995 statement issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.