In the one-hour meeting with Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawai'i, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others, Abe said his recent comments on comfort women were misunderstood.

"As an individual, and the prime minister, I sympathize from the bottom of my heart with the former comfort women who experienced this extreme hardship. I'm deeply sorry about the situation in which they were placed," Abe said.

Abe voluntarily raised the issue at the beginning of the meeting, and emphasized that the meaning and intention behind his recent remarks on the subject were not correctly conveyed.

Criticism has arisen in the United States over Abe's recent comments that denied the women had been recruited by "coercion in a narrow definition" — an allegation that Japanese government officials or Imperial Japanese Army officers forced the women to work in military brothels.

The U.S. House has indicated it may adopt a resolution demanding the Japanese government offer an official apology to the victimized women. Abe's remarks during the meeting were an apparent attempt to seek the understanding of U.S. lawmakers by frankly expressing his sentiments.