China on Friday said Japan should make a "sincere apology" for its World War II aggression, hours after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated Tokyo's past expressions of "deep remorse" over the conflict.

China's foreign ministry made the demand in a statement posted on its website, Beijing's first official reaction to Abe's remarks earlier Friday on the 70th anniversary of the end of the war when he said that Japan's future generations should not have to keep apologising.