Japan's government on Tuesday issued an apology for the country's past colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, ahead of the August 29 centenary of the annexation.
In a statement, Prime Minister, Mr Naoto Kan, expressed deep regret over the suffering inflicted during Japan's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
The apology, approved by Mr Kan's centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, was timed to also precede South Korea's celebration of its 1945 liberation on August 15.
Mr Kan expressed his "feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for the tremendous damage and suffering brought by the colonial rule".
"Through the colonial rule that was against their will... the people of Korea were deprived of their nation and culture and their ethnic pride was deeply hurt," Mr Kan said.
Successive Japanese prime ministers in recent decades have expressed regret for the country's wartime aggression in Asia, including a landmark 1995 statement issued by then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama.
But such sentiments have been dismissed as insincere by Asian neighbours, partly because of comments made by some conservative lawmakers who refuse to admit to Japan's past aggression.
In a statement issued on August 15, 1995, Murayama, only the second socialist to head a Japanese government, expressed "deep remorse" and offered a "heartfelt apology" to Asian nations.
Kan said on Tuesday that he sought to "build a future-oriented relationship" with South Korea.
Last week Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, once a lawyer who worked for the rights of ethnic Koreans in Japan, said the government should consider compensating individuals for the colonial rule.