JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday expressed an unfeigned apology to “comfort women” who were forced by Japan’s then military government into sex slavery during World War II.

In a TV program on NHK earlier in the day, Abe also reiterated that his government will not change the policy of honoring the Kono statement.

The prime minister’s remarks were a big change from what he said Thursday, when he hinted at a reinvestigation of the facts unearthed in 1993 by the previous official probe, which gave birth to the Kono statement in the same year.

Analysts warned that if put into action, the reinvestigation could lead to review of Japan’s official stand on the wartime sex slavery issue and would be destined to arouse further criticism from Asian countries, which suffered from Japan’s past militarism.

Abe sparked outrage abroad when he said in February there was no evidence that Japan’s government or army had forced the mostly Asian women to work in military brothels during World War II.

(SD-Xinhua)