Abe's ambiguity on statements harms Japan

Truly following the world-recognized "Murayama Statement" has become a tough test for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration, as the prime minister has increasingly resorted to a game of words on the key issue of Japan's attitude toward its wartime wrongdoings.

Abe gave yet another show of his conservative right-leaning political stand during an upper house debate on Monday when Masayoshi Nataniya, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, asked Abe to read word by word some underlined parts of the 1995 statement by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.

The few lines, which epitomize the essence of the statement, read "during a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensnare the Japanese people in a fateful crisis, and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."