An apology by Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister, for his country's militarist past, made today in front of a summit of Asian and African leaders, is the latest to a region that remains wary of Japan's past aggression.

Japan occupied the Korean peninsula and much of China up to 1945, during which imperial troops forced thousands of women into sexual slavery and killed millions. Some of the key statements by Japan on its past include:

September 1972: Japan normalises relations with China. A joint communique says:"Japan is keenly conscious of its responsibility for the serious damage inflicted in the past on the Chinese people through war and deeply regrets it."

May 1990: Emperor Akihito, the son of wartime emperor Hirohito, says during a banquet for visiting South Korean president Roh Tae-Woo:"I think of the sufferings your people underwent during this unfortunate period, which was brought about by my country, and cannot but feel deep regret."

Toshiki Kaifu, the then Prime Minister, went further: "I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere remorse and apology for Japan’s acts that made people on the Korean peninsula suffer unbearable agony and sorrow during a period in the past." He notably did not use the words "colonial rule" or "aggression" that have appeared in later statements.

October 1992: Emperor Akihito, on a historic visit to Beijing, tells a banquet hosted by president Yang Shangkun: "In the long history of relationship between our two countries, there was an unfortunate period in which my country inflicted great sufferings on the people of China. I deeply deplore this."

August 1995: In a landmark statement, the Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, only the second socialist to head a Japanese government. apologises on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

"During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensure the Japanese people in a fateful crisis and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian countries," Mr Murayama said.

"In the hope that no such mistakes be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humanity, these irrefutable facts of history and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology."

April 2005: Mr Koizumi said that Japan "through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."

"Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility. And with feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology always engraved in mind, Japan has resolutely maintained, consistently since the end of World War II, never turning into a military power but an economic power, its principle of resolving all matters by peaceful means, without recourse to use of force," he said.

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