Japan must deal with its past and make up with neighbours: Merkel

Tokyo

JAPAN could do more to deal with its World War II legacy and reconcile with Asian neighbours, German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled at a press conference on Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"There was debate, sometimes an acrimonious debate, about how to deal with past, how to do justice to the horrors of National Socialism," Mrs Merkel said with Mr Abe at her side at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo. After the war, "dealing with our past was one of the conditions for reconciliation" with Germany's European neighbours, she said.