Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will honor past governments’ apologies for Japan’s wartime atrocities, but stopped short of making his own apology.

While a Japanese leader’s war anniversary statement is always closely watched, this year’s is getting extra attention, because it marks the 70th anniversary and Abe is considered a revisionist. However, both statements have become unpopular among Japanese conservatives who say Japan should stop focusing on negative history to restore national pride.

Since taking office in December 2012, Abe has said he wouldn’t necessarily follow the Murayama apology. He also has said there is no evidence that so-called comfort women were exploited through coercion by Japanese authorities, with critics accusing him of undermining the Kono apology.

The two ex- political leaders made the remarks in a news conference on Tuesday.

“If he is carrying on the [previous] statements as he has recently suggested, Prime Minister Abe should avoid questions and misunderstandings from the global community by speaking frankly and clearly in his postwar 70th anniversary statement”, he said. In his past August 15 speeches, Abe omitted his predecessors’ references to the damage Japan inflicted on its Asian victims and apologies to them.

Signatories say Tokyo must face up to its responsibility for the sexual enslavement of thousands of women, an issue at the heart of the bitter enmity between Japan and South Korea, from where most of the women came.

Japan offered an apology to former sex slaves in 1993 - the words of which remain government policy - but campaigners accuse Abe of playing down any official role by the country or its military.

On paper, Japan’s numbers look great, and are a triumph for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been under pressure to boost the economy.

“International society is watching what he is really thinking”, Murayama said.

“Whether the AIIB would clear those elements is quite important for United States”.