First saw this on the Mainichi paper, there seems to be a discrepancy between how the FM-level talks were reported in Japan and by Xinhua. The xinhua page says:

Nobutaka said Japan’s invasion into China in modern history brought great damage to the Chinese people. The Japanese side feels deep regret for that and once again expresses deep remorse and apology, he said.

The Japanese media reports say something on the order of (rough translation):

Nobutaka referred to former Prime Minister Murayama’s statement of apology, confirmed it reflected the current position of the Japanese government, and that Japan recognizes its history as a lesson to be learned from

The CPC known for pointing out when Japanese statements don’t use the word ‘apology’ or (お詫び (owabi) in Japanese), seems to have turned around and added a few extra words this time around, or at least substituted the reference to Murayama’s statement with Murayama’s actual words. Theories seem to be afloat that this was done to passify the Chinese protestors. I guess I’ll give it a few days, but it does seem like a very ironic twist.
Admittedly, this recent action will probably help more than hurt (if it manages to control the protests), but it still makes one suspicious what the CPC is up to.
I really hope that the two governments can set up a joint history research committee. This will quell the concern in Japan that the Chinese version of history disregards a lot of conflicting information from the Japanese side.