Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is repeating his empty rhetoric regarding the issue of Japan’s wartime sex slavery.

Abe has said that his government sympathizes with the sufferings of the victims as much as previous governments do.

But when an opposition party lawmaker asked him about if he is willing to apologize to the former sex slaves, he remained silent, an expression of his reluctance to offer an apology.

In an interview with a U.S. magazine, he even justified visits by Japanese Cabinet members and lawmakers to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead including Class-A war criminals.

Abe compared the Yasukuni Shrine to Arlington National Cemetery in the U.S.

Regarding his controversial remarks denying Japan’s history of invasion, the Japanese prime minister said that it is historians’ job to determine if Japan invaded neighboring countries.