Leaders of Japanese opposition parties urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday to uphold the Murayama Statement that offers an apology to Asian countries for Japan's wartime atrocities.

Abe said at a TV program earlier the day that his planned new statement, expected to be issued at the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, would change key wording like "colonial rule" and " aggression" in the 1995 Murayama Statement.

"Rather than whether to use the wording we have repeated, I want to issue in light of how the Abe government considers the matter," Abe was quoted at the TV program.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the Komeito party, the junior ruling coalition partner of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, said the form of expression used in the Murayama statement had significant meaning and should be given respect.

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan's leader Katsuya Okada criticized Abe's remarks as "intolerable," saying the prime minister called key expression in the Murayama Statement "bits and pieces."

Kazuo Shii, leader of the Japanese Communist Party, also urged Abe to retain key aspects of the 1995 statement and take appropriate action.

Then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama said in a statement in 1995 that Japan caused "tremendous damage and suffering" to the people of Asia and other countries through its colonial rule and aggression.