Poll finds more than half want PM to apologize

Updated: 2015-04-01 07:49

By Xinhua in Tokyo(China Daily)

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Japan's relations with its neighbors have been stretched for years due to some of the country's lawmakers, ministers and even the leader trying to deny it ever committed atrocities during World War II.

However, in Shibuya, a crowded commercial ward in downtown Tokyo, ordinary people felt that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should seek reconciliation with neighboring China and South Korea through including an apology in his planned war anniversary statement.

Their opinions were in line with a poll in which 54.6 percent of 1,016 respondents said they thought Abe should include regret and apology for the country's past colonial rule and aggression in his statement for the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

"I think it is important that Japan should build friendships with China and South Korea through the country's reflection on what it did in the wartime. So it is natural to include apologies in the statement," said a sociologist in his 60s.

Poll finds more than half want PM to apologize

The professor, who identified himself as Hiromi, added that Japan has not done enough about facing up to its wartime history compared with Germany, and the countries should all make efforts to improve relationships.

A woman in her 20s said, "I think Abe should apologize because many people were victims. He had better apologize in his statement".

However, a young man's comments may represent the 30.5 percent of the respondents in the survey who said such an apology should not be a part of the so-called Abe statement.

"I think apologies should not be included in the Abe statement. Of course, it is important to admit things happened in the past. But if apologies are included, we would be required to apologize for other things. And as a result, I think, this will make little progress in our talks," said the young man.

The war anniversary statement has drawn much attention inside and outside Japan since Abe intimated that he would not use the wording of "colonial rule" and "aggression" in a statement that is considered the government perception of Japan's wartime history.

(China Daily 04/01/2015 page11)