Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet could hurt U.S. interests by roiling regional tensions with “comments and actions on controversial historical issues,” the U.S. Congressional Research Service said Tuesday.

In a report on U.S.-Japan relations, the CRS said Abe has raised tensions in the region over issues such as Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of women, history textbooks accused of whitewashing the country’s wartime atrocities, and visits to a Tokyo shrine accused of honoring war criminals.

“Comments and actions on controversial historical issues by Abe and his cabinet have raised concern that Tokyo could upset regional relations in ways that hurt U.S. interests. Abe is known for his strong nationalist views,” the report said.

Abe “brings both positive and negative qualities” to the alliance with the U.S., at once bolstering it but also renewing historical animosities that could disturb the regional security environment, the report said.

A poor relationship between South Korea and Japan “jeopardizes U.S. interests by complicating trilateral cooperation on North Korea policy and other regional challenges,” the report said, adding that it also hurts U.S. efforts to build an “integrated U.S.-Japan-South Korea ballistic missile defense system.”

In his New Year’s news conference early this month, Abe said he would include Japan’s remorse over the war and how the country will contribute to the region and beyond in a special statement he plans to issue to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II in August.

“International audiences will be watching closely on how Abe handles the upcoming commemorations,” it said.

The report pointed out, however, that Abe’s remark about expressing “remorse” for the war in the statement to be issued in August has set off speculation that the “planned document may stop short of a forthright apology.”

It also criticized Abe for demonstrating “an inconsistent pattern” of making and then recanting controversial statements that upset China and South Korea, referring to Abe’s 2013 comments that suggested his government would not reaffirm a 1995 statement of apology made by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.

The so-called Murayama Statement is regarded as Japan’s most significant official apology for wartime acts, the report said. Abe later backed down from the remark, saying his cabinet shares the same understanding as previous cabinets. (Yonhap)