Earlier this week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered a very carefully worded, extremely indirect apology to women who were forced to be sex slaves during World War II: Japan's PM apologizes to WWII-era sex slaves. It was an apology of sorts, but not the real apology or acknowledgement victims have been demanding:

"I express my sympathy toward the comfort women and apologize for the situation they found themselves in," Abe told a parliamentary debate, using a euphemism used by Japanese politicians to refer to former sex slaves. "I apologize here and now as prime minister."

It's obviously an attempt to quell the international outcry caused by his denials earlier this month. Still, these remarks fall way short of a clear acknowledgement that the Japanese wartime military was involved in forcing the women into prostitution. And that's unacceptable.