Japan PM Abe visits USA amid controversial WWII remarks

TOKYO — Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe begins a historic, week-long visit to the United States on Sunday that will highlight strengthened trade and defense ties between the two countries, and feature the first address by a Japanese leader before a joint session of Congress.

Now, if the right-leaning Abe can just keep it zipped about World War II.

The visit will include a summit meeting and state dinner at the White House, a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and meetings with business and government leaders on both coasts.

But it's his congressional speech on Wednesday that is drawing the most attention. More than 100 world leaders have been invited to speak before a joint session of Congress since the end of World War II, but none from Japan, until now.

Abe's views on the war have caused problems on both sides of the Pacific. Since taking office, he has made statements that seem to gloss over Japan's wartime atrocities and cast doubt on his commitment to official apologies issued by previous prime ministers for war crimes.

Abe's stance has damaged relations with China, which suffered under Japanese occupation, and South Korea. Leaders in both countries have refused one-on-one summit meetings with Abe.

This month, 25 House members sent a letter to Japan's ambassador urging Abe to "formally reaffirm and validate" previousapologiesduring his congressional address. Earlier, an organization of American World War II POWs urged Congress not to invite Abe without assurances that he would acknowledge Japanese wrongdoing.

"Abe has been inconsistent in the way he talks about this history — sometimes acknowledging Japanese violence, and other times denying it and saying that discussing that past is unpatriotic," said Jennifer Lind, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College and a 2014 Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow in Tokyo. "Here, Abe has an opportunity in his speech to set the record straight — and I hope he makes the most of it."

Also controversial is a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact nearing completion that both Abe and Obama support as a way to boost exports and create jobs. But both are facing opposition at home.

In the United States, Democratic liberals and labor groups are skeptical of the claimed benefits. In Japan, the powerful farm lobby has long opposed trade concessions to the United States, and Abe had to overcome objections within his own Liberal Democratic Party to enter into trade negotiations in 2013.

On the security front, U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers plan to sign a new version of the U.S.-Japan Guidelines for Defense Cooperation on Monday. It will be the first update in how the two countries divide roles and missions since1997,when China's military spending,capabilitiesand assertiveness were far less than today.

Abe has boosted defense spending and sought to ease constitutional restraints on offensive missions by Japan's military. A key goal of the guidelines is to broaden the circumstances under which Japan's armed services — officially known as self-defense forces — can aid U.S. forces in contingencies where Japan itself is not under immediate threat.

The signing of the defense pact comes as the Obama administration is sending thousands of additional troops and its most advanced ships and aircraft to the Asia-Pacific region to counter China's rapid buildup.

Abe has staked much political capital on the economic and defense issues, as well as better ties with the United States. Relations suffered under a series of ineffectual, short-term leaders before Abe began his second term as prime minister in December 2012.

"There's an appreciation that Abe has been working to change Japan's role in the region," said Tobias Harris, a Japan analyst with Teneo Intelligence in Washington, D.C. "So it's 'Bravo, Japan,' for having a leader stay in power long enough to actually get things done."