At a news conference on Monday ahead of his 55th birthday, Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito stressed the need to remember World War II "correctly". Comments:

By highlighting the significance of facing up to history and abiding by the pacifist Constitution in Japan at the beginning of 2015, the year that marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, both the current Emperor Akihito and his son Naruhito have made giant steps to demonstrate the royal family's stance as much as they can.

Feng Wuyong, a Xinhua News Agency reporter in Tokyo, Feb 25

Japan's royal family very rarely wades into politics, but it is very hard to believe that this is not a planned and calculated comment that has been approved by the Imperial Household Agency. Clearly the agency believes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is going too far and that it will be bad for the nation if he continues to take the line that Japan did nothing wrong in the early decades of the last century.

Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at the Japan campus of Temple University, Feb 23

Taking a very different stance on Japan's wartime atrocities compared with the country's right-wing government is in the interests of the Japanese royal family. Emperor Hirohito, Naruhito's grandfather, should have been put on trial for waging wars worldwide, but he was neither removed nor held responsible. Imagine the royal family agree to Japan's pacifist Constitution being revised and then Tokyo is defeated in a war it provoked, they would surely be deprived of their imperial rights for good.

Qu Limin, Foreign Affairs Office of Liaoning province, Feb 25