Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government decided on Tuesday to hold a ceremony next month marking the 1952 return of sovereignty to Tokyo and the end of post-World War II occupation by US-led forces, a sign of his drive to repair what conservatives consider dented national pride

The April 28 event, 61 years after the US-led administration ceded control to a civilian Japanese government, would mark "Japan's return to the international community," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party pledged to introduce the ceremony in its campaign for the general election in December, with many of his core supporters critical of what they say is Japan's apologetic attitude to its history.

Abe has flirted with reviewing past government statements offering contrition for wartime abominations committed by Japanese troops as they stomped across Asia on a brutal campaign.

Abe told a parliamentary committee last week a ceremony would help teach history to "an increasing number of young people who don't know that there existed a seven-year occupation period" by US-led Allied forces following Japan's surrender in 1945.

Unlike in Germany, there is no commonly-accepted narrative of the wrongs committed on Japan's march to war, with history teaching sometimes criticized by outsiders as unbalanced.

Some Japanese business executives worry that Abe, who has been focusing on policies to revive Japan's stagnant economy, may shift gears to his hawkish security and historical revisionist agenda after a July upper house election that his ruling bloc needs to win to cement its grip on power.

Abe enjoys support rates of around 70 percent, largely on hopes for his "Abenomics" mix of big spending and hyper-easy monetary policies, but some political experts question how much backing there was for his parallel non-economic agenda.

Abe's plan has stirred anger in Okinawa, the southern island chain that remained under US control until 1972 and is reluctant host to more than half of the 47,000 American service personnel still in Japan.

AFP - Reuters