Head of Japan's second world war anniversary panel calls on Abe to admit to a 'war of invasion'

The acting head of a panel set up by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to craft an address to mark the end of the second world war has deviated from the script by calling on the hawkish Japanese leader to state unequivocally that Japan waged a "war of invasion".

Speaking at a symposium in Tokyo, Shinichi Kitaoka said, "I really want Prime Minister Abe to say that Japan invaded" other nations in East Asia as part of his address on August 15, commemorating the 70th anniversary end of the conflict.

"It is obvious that Japan conducted a war of invasion and did some very bad things," Kyodo News quoted Kitaoka as saying. "If you ask Japanese historians, 99 per cent of them would agree."

Hand-picked by Abe, the 16-strong panel was convened in late February and brings together 10 academics, three business leaders, two journalists and an international aid worker. Kitaoka, the president of International University of Japan, is one of Abe's favoured academics and has advised the prime minister on a number of issues, including legal revisions as they relate to security, but his stance on the speech may have taken Abe and some others aback.

The academic is, however, merely the acting head of the panel and can be over-ruled or sidelined should Abe decide he disagrees with his opinions.

And there are plenty of people on the panel that he can turn to if he wishes to, with one-third of the appointees regular members of his policy advice committees.

Masashi Nishihara, for example, is the head of a national security think tank and has previously claimed that South Korea has "fabricated" reports of comfort women forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers.