Shinzo Abe has a reputation for being a nationalist and a hawk. Yet in striking a deal with South Korea over wartime “comfort women”, the Japanese prime minister has made the most significant atonement for his country’s past conduct since 1995, when Tomiichi Murayama — the dovish Social Democrat who then held that office — apologised for Japan’s aggression during the second world war.

As part of this week’s agreement, Tokyo apologised for forcing Korean women to serve as sex slaves for imperial troops. It pledged $8.3m for surviving victims; as many in South Korea had demanded, the funds will come from official rather than private sources. Both sides called the agreement “final and irrevocable”, raising hopes that two of Asia’s most important economies can finally overcome a longstanding impediment to constructive relations between them.

Both South Korea and Japan have showed courage, pragmatism and the willingness to risk a domestic backlash. The benefits of this rapprochement should not be underestimated, at a moment when east Asia confronts both opportunity and peril.