Japan¡¯s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s latest remarks on the Japanese military¡¯s sex slavery during World War II are still seen as lacking in sincerity. It is apparent that he is just trying to mend fences ahead of his April 26-27 visit to the United States since his refusal to admit to the forced mobilization of ``comfort women¡¯¡¯ has touched off an outcry not only in Korea, China and other Asian countries but also in America.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine on Saturday, Abe expressed regrets that his country¡¯s military forced women into sexual slavery during the war. It marked the first time that he made such an apology on the sensitive issue as a prime minister. ``I have to express sympathy from the bottom of my heart to those people who were taken as wartime comfort women. As a human being I would like to express my sympathy, and also as prime minister of Japan I need to apologize to them,¡¯¡¯ Abe told Newsweek.

It seemed that Abe had taken the first step toward apologizing and taking responsibility for one of Japan¡¯s wartime atrocities and brutal crimes against humanity. However, critics at home and abroad do not accept his apology because he still sticks to the 1993 statement by former Japanese Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono that apologized for the Japanese military¡¯s ``involvement¡¯¡¯ in the use of women as sex slaves.

It is regrettable that Abe told the magazine that his administration has been saying all along that Japan continues to stand by the Kono statement acknowledging the country¡¯s partial responsibility for the frontline brothels. His stance on the issue is not a far cry from his previous remarks that there was no evidence that the Japanese military took any part in the forced use of innocent women to serve its troops who invaded Korea, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries.

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