Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress during his visit to the U.S. at the end of next month, becoming the first Japanese leader ever to do so.

Abe’s speech would be a diplomatic coup for Japan which had, in the past, unsuccessfully attempted to have its leader address both the House of Representatives and the Senate. For example, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s plan to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 2006 was scuttled over the issue of his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine which houses Japan’s class-A war criminals.

Abe is expected to speak on the theme of U.S.-Japan relations 70 years after the end of World War II. The joint session of the U.S. Congress would be a symbolic place to make such a speech ― it was there that President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the Congress to declare war on Japan on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, effectively entering World War II.

While the long-awaited opportunity to address the U.S. Congress may seem like a jewel in the crown for Japanese diplomacy, the occasion requires Abe to carefully consider what must be said in the speech.

First and foremost, Abe will have to address the issue of its wartime aggression and particularly the Japanese military’s sexual slavery before he can make credible claims about future U.S-Japan relations. Indeed, nothing less than an explicit statement of his commitment to stand by the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement acknowledging and apologizing for Japan’s wartime aggression and the Japanese military sexual slavery during the war will do.

The upcoming Abe speech has yet another symbolic meaning. The House of Representatives, in July 2007, passed House Resolution 121 that addressed the military sexual slavery issue. The resolution asks the Japanese government to formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility for military sexual slavery and for the Japanese prime minister to present such an official and public apology. The resolution also asks the Japanese government to refute any claims that military sexual slavery never occurred. It also calls for educating the Japanese about the crime while following the international community’s recommendations with respect to the military sex slaves. In March 2007, during his first stint as prime minister, Abe had set off an international furor by claiming that there was no evidence to prove that women were coerced into military sexual slavery.

Looking at Abe’s record so far, he has done everything to contradict the resolution. In fact, his actions render the House Resolution 121 mute. During his speech at the joint meeting of U.S. Congress, Abe must be made answerable to his administration’s response to the House Resolution 121.

Abe has been given a golden opportunity to change things around next month. The world is waiting to see if he is ready to rise to the occasion and make an unequivocal statement acknowledging and apologizing for its wartime aggression and military sexual slavery once and for all. Only when he does, will the world truly view Japan as a responsible, trust-worthy member of the international community.