Abe Vows to Take on Past Cabinet History Positions

Tokyo, Jan. 28 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated Wednesday that a statement he plans to issue in August to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II will take on past cabinets' views of history. "My administration has inherited as a whole the positions taken by past cabinets with regard to history recognition, including the 1995 Murayama statement, and will continue to do so," Abe told a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, when asked about his planned war-end anniversary statement. "I will write in the new statement Japan's remorse for the war, its postwar path as a pacifist nation, how the country will contribute to the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world, and what kind of country it wants to become toward the 80th, 90th and 100th war-end anniversary," Abe said. But Abe did not go into further details of his upcoming statement, only saying that he will work on the specifics by listening to the opinions of experts. On Aug. 15, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued a statement that expressed "deep remorse" and "heartfelt apology" for Japan's past colonial rule and invasions. Abe suggested in a television program Sunday that his statement will not use exactly the same key wording as in the Murayama statement. Also at Wednesday's Upper House meeting, Abe discussed Japan's fiscal conditions. "The government maintains its goal of achieving a primary budget surplus in fiscal 2020 and will come up with specific measures by summer this year" in pursuit of this target, Abe said. Regarding efforts by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, to introduce a reduced consumption tax rate for daily necessities in fiscal 2017, Abe said, "The government will wait and see how the ruling bloc talks will develop." The coalition move comes as the Abe government has postponed a consumption tax hike, to 10 pct from the current 8 pct, until April 2017 from the initially planned October this year. On nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, Abe said, "As the sole atomic-bombed nation, it is our country's important mission to take an active lead in efforts to realize a nuclear-free world." Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both western Japan cities, were flattened by the U.S. atomic bombings in August 1945 in the closing days of World War II. END