I’ve read countless times that Japan has not formally apologized to its neighboring countries for its mass killings/rapes/abuse. However a friend of mine directed me to a Wikipedia page listing several apologies from politicians over the years. Are these apologies invalid or are they ignored? If they are invalid, what constitutes an official and accepted apology from the perspective of the victims and Japan’s critic?
This post, by u/asianexpert, gives the background to your question as it gives a good account of the history of post war Japan dealing with the legacy of WW2 war crimes.
u/dsk_oz posts later in the thread why the formal apologies made for specific crimes such as comfort women have come as generally feeling like "sorry not sorry" due to lack of contrition by Japanese governments, with problems such as politicians who would still denigrate the victims publicly.