Japan panel submits report ahead of Abe’s WWII statement

TOKYO — A government panel has praised Japan’s postwar economic growth and commitment to pacifism but also cites lack of reconciliation with China and South Korea.

The report released Thursday did not specify what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should say in his statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, or whether he should use the same language to convey the apology from 1995 by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.

The report urges sensitivity for the feelings of the victims of Japan’s wartime actions.

Abe, known as a revisionist, is widely seen as trying to water down the 1995 apology by issuing his own, most likely focusing on the bright side of postwar Japan.