Shinzo Abe
Shinzo Abe is president of the Liberal Democratic Party and was elected prime minister of Japan in December 2012. He also served as prime minister in 2006 after being elected by a special session of Japan’s National Diet, but resigned after less than a year.
Time is said to heal all wounds, but the scars of Japan's wartime atrocities in Asia are still obvious in China and the Korean peninsula as the region prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war. Although the nations have solid trade and tourism ties with their former colonial aggressor, diplomatic relations remain poor, soured by territorial disputes and rising nationalism. Commemorations are times for reflection and there has been concern that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would use the occasion to further a right-wing agenda. His announcement that he plans to issue a special statement that would include an expression of remorse has caused as much hope as worry.
Abe did not make clear what the statement, to be issued on August 15, the day of Japan's surrender, would contain. What it says will be scrutinised by governments the world over, but especially so by Beijing and Seoul. They will expect it to go further than those given by previous leaders, viewed as being insufficiently repentant. If it is as deeply apologetic as is hoped, there is every chance that relations can be rebuilt.
But historical revisionism is growing in Japan. Abe caused outrage when he and lawmakers visited the Yasukuni shrine honouring convicted war criminals in 2013, and there is no certainty that they will stay away at so sensitive a time. Measures to reinterpret the pacifist constitution are under way.
Former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama acknowledged in marking the 50th anniversary of the war in 1995 that Japanese colonial rule and aggression had caused "tremendous damage and suffering" and expressed "deep remorse" and "heartfelt apology". Through such statements and billions of dollars of development aid given to Asia, some Japanese believe there has been enough contrition and it is time to move on. But as much as that may be wished for, it is not possible while those who suffered do not feel Japan has sufficiently faced up to its past.
The statement will be an opportunity for Abe to reach out and end animosity. In the months leading up to the anniversary, he should begin smoothing ties by ensuring he and his ministers are more careful about what they say and do; actions speak louder than words, after all. But the commemoration also offers a chance for Japanese to debate their wartime conduct. Japan has a proud post-war record of being a peace-loving nation and only by ensuring that lessons are learned from past mistakes can that be maintained.
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