TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The head of Japan's ruling coalition partner on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to issue a fresh war anniversary statement as this year marks 80 years since the end of World War II.

Komeito party leader Tetsuo Saito made the comments after Ishiba said in a Japanese media interview that he will consider whether to issue his own statement this year.

"Issuing a statement at this juncture will carry importance as a country that pursues peace," Saito told reporters.

Japan's top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular press briefing that nothing has been decided yet, adding that the current Cabinet upholds the views on history expressed by its predecessors.

"We will try to send a message strategically and in a future-oriented manner in our pursuit of peace and prosperity of the world," Hayashi said.

Japan's prime ministers at the time of the 50th, 60th and 70th anniversary issued statements that have been scrutinized by Asian neighbors such as China and South Korea, which experienced Japanese wartime aggression.

On the 50th anniversary in 1995, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama expressed "deep remorse" and offered his "heartfelt apology" for Japan's having caused damage and suffering to the people of many countries.

In his 70th anniversary statement in 2015, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retained such key phrases as "aggression" and "colonial rule" from the one a decade earlier and acknowledged Japan's past apologies, without offering a fresh one of his own.