TOKYO - The rightist Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro has stirred up Korean sentiments by saying that the people of Chosun, which was Korea's name from the 15th century to the early 20th century, voluntarily chose to be annexed by Japan in 1910.

Ishihara made the statement Tuesday at a meeting hosted by a group working to repatriate Japanese abducted by North Korea, according to Japanese newspapers such as the Mainichi and the Asahi.

The volatile remark came after Ishihara was commenting on the roots of the Japanese people. He claimed that early in the 20th century Koreans were divided over which strong country to ally themselves with, either Russia, China or Japan. They chose Japan and sought help from it, he said, because Japan was the most modernized and its people were the most similar in appearance to Koreans. Neighboring countries also approved the annexation, he said.

Ishihara qualified the statement, saying that he did not intend to justify the Japanese annexation "100 percent." He said he understood that Korean people felt resentful and humiliated about the matter now. "But strictly speaking, the annexation was the fault of their ancestors, and even though Japan's rule was in the form of colonialism, it was advanced and humanitarian," he said.

In response to Ishihara's remarks, another politician voiced criticism, saying that Ishihara had crossed the line and it was true that independence movements had been active in Korea.

Only this year, several Japanese politicians have made distorting remarks about the past relations of the two countries. In June, Aso Taro, a high-ranking member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and an incumbent minister, said ahead of President Roh Moo-hyun's state visit to Japan that Korean people had voluntarily taken Japanese names during the colonial era. In July, Eto Akami, the former home affairs minister, said that Japan's colonial rule was proper because the League of Nations had approved the annexation.

Ishihara made more reckless remarks. He said that other Asians, such as Koreans and Chinese, are people from third-rate nations. He also made misogynistic remarks and said that Japan should be armed with nuclear weapons.

Recently, Ishihara drew criticism when he made supportive remarks for terrorist activists after a bomb had been found at the house of a Foreign Ministry official, saying it had probably been planted by a rightist who was looking for sympathy.

He was re-elected early this year as the governor of Tokyo prefecture. He does not skip tribute visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war dead from World War II. He supports a rightist group that campaigns to revise history textbooks in favor of a more nationalistic slant.

Observers say Ishihara does not make these kinds of provocative remarks off-the-cuff, that they are calculated moves. In fact, he acknowledged that his pro-terrorist remark was premeditated. He had intentionally said some provocative things and the mass media did not lose the chance to use them, he said.

The South Korean government said Wednesday that Ishihara's remarks were "deeply regrettable." In a comment read by an official at Seoul's Foreign Ministry, the government said, "It was really disappointing that a responsible politician made those backward remarks based on distorted historical perspectives."

(Jung Kwon-hyun, khjung@chosun.com)