With Japan offering an apology and 1 billion yen (about $8.3 million) to help establish a foundation to support the women forced to work as sex slaves during the Japanese occupation of the Republic of Korea, the two countries agreed to settle their long-standing differences over the so-called comfort women on Monday.

This marks a turning point in ties between Tokyo and Seoul. It should also serve as a starting point for Japan to act in a more responsible manner to resolve the sensitive historical issue with its other neighbors.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's notorious revisionist policy has fueled rightwing politicians' attempts to deny Japan's wartime atrocities, including the exploitation of the "comfort women", which is a Japanese euphemism for the women forced into sexual slavery in Japan's military brothels in the countries it occupied in the first half of the last century.