Editor's Note: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a statement in Tokyo on Friday marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Yang Bojiang, deputy director of the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has commented on Abe's statement. The following are his three views:

First, Abe has made some compromises under pressure. Abe has insisted on a wrong view of history, as he once claimed "there is not a universal definition of invasion." He also expressed many times the desire to revise former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama's statement on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the second world war's end in 1995. In his speech, Murayama publicly apologized for imperial Japan's brutal crimes committed during the war.

This time, Abe did mention the key words -- "aggression," "colonial rule," "deep remorse" and "apology" in his speech, showing a kind of concession from his stubbornness.

As the world commemorates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the main public opinion in Japan hopes the Abe administration can step forward toward reconciliation with neighboring countries. But the new security bill has disappointed the public and resulted in a decline in Abe's approval rating. Therefore, Abe has come under pressure from domestic public opinion and political parties, including moderates of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the co-ruling New Clean Government Party and other parties. If Abe wants public support for other policies such as re-launching the nuclear power plants, the upper house election and raising consumption duty, he has to divert voters' attention by relieving the tensions between Japan and its neighbors, including China, Russia or even North Korea, even though the improvement is only superficial.

Second, Abe's wordplay has shown his reluctance to apologize. The length of Abe's speech was almost four times that of Murayama's statement. But on the two key issues, the nature of and responsibility for the war, he did not elaborate and tried to cover the issues up by embedding Japan's action with the historical background. He emphasized the "jungle justice" to generalize Japan's stage of the war and the atrocities committed by the militarists. And the words "deep remorse" and "apology" also appeared in the same context.

Abe's reluctance comes from his deep-rooted historical revisionism, which is in conflict with apologizing for Japan's belligerent past. Moreover, he has to please his rightwing fellows who not only share the same political ideas as him, but are also the basis for both of his ascents to power.

Third, Abe has to take concrete action. In his statement, Abe thanked countries for accepting Japan's return to the international community after the war, and thanked the tolerant Chinese who raised 3,000 Japanese orphans. He also said that Japan would never be a challenger of the international order and would insist on peaceful and diplomatic resolutions to all the international conflicts. But his words need to be proved by actions. One concern is how Prime Minister Abe will solve the contradiction between lifting the ban on the collective self-defense and insisting on peaceful and diplomatic resolutions to all the international conflicts.

Furthermore, the rightwing group behind Abe also deserves our attention. In recent years, they have actively made provocations and failed several times to live up to their promises on historical issues. Twenty years ago, on the same day Murayama delivered his speech, the rightwing conservative forces published "A Summary of the Greater East Asia War," in which they glorified the Japanese aggression and denied the Nanjing Massacre. This time, after Abe's speech, we have to be on alert about their next move.

This post was published in Chinese and translated by Li Shen.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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