Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata said Friday the new Japanese government will apologize frankly about Japan's actions at the time of World War II, but it will not mention the issue of compensation.
An exception will be made, however, in the case of women forced into prostitution, mainly Asian women, as sex slaves known euphemistically as "comfort women" for the Imperial army, said Hata.Speaking at a news conference, Hata, who is also deputy prime minister, was referring to a policy speech set for delivery in the Diet, Japan's parliament Monday, by Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, his first major address since he assumed office on Aug 9.
Hosokawa referred to a "war of aggression" waged by Japan at his first news conference four days after he was voted in as the first non-Liberal Democratic Party prime minister in 38 years.
The prime minister is expected to reflect on and apologize for atrocities committed during the war period in which Japan invaded numerous countries in the Pacific region, and he has said he wants to "finalize war issues".
"Finalizing war issues doesn't mean we will offer compensation to the victims. We would like to offer frank apologies and show remorse to them, but not to refer to war compensation," said Hata.
"Although the comfort women issue is special, we will not review the San Francisco Treaty and other bilateral treaties. Prime Minister Hosokawa shares the same view," said Hata referring to Japan's security accords with the United States and Asian countries.
Historians say an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 women were sent to the frontline during the war period to as forced prostitutes to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.
Most of the women came from Korea, but others were from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Netherlands.
At the same news conference as Hata, the Management and Coordination Agency chief Koshiro Ishida said the government should separate the issue of compensation and Japan's war responsibility.
Ishida said Japan has already settled its reparations, but agreed it was right for Hosokawa to use the phrase "war of agression" and say it was a wrong war, which has evoked ire among some opposition politicians.
A veteran member of the former ruling LDP severely criticized Hosokawa Thursday for using those words.
Shizuka Kamei told members at an LDP chapter meeting Hosokawa had blasphemed Japanese history by his remarks.
Hosokawa's predecessors had expressed only the blandest acknowledgement that Japan inflicted suffering on its neighbors, saying the acts were "regrettable" and caused a feeling of "remorse."