Japan’s former PM Tomiichi Murayama, known for WWII apology, passes away

Tokyo: Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who issued Japan’s landmark apology for wartime atrocities during World War II, passed away on Friday at the age of 101, officials confirmed.

Murayama, who served as prime minister from 1994 to 1996, is best remembered for his 1995 statement marking the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, in which he expressed “deep remorse” for the suffering caused by Japan’s wartime actions across Asia.

“Tomiichi Murayama, the father of Japanese politics, passed away today at 11:28 am at a hospital in Oita City at the age of 101,” Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party — the successor to Murayama’s defunct Socialist Party — announced on X (formerly Twitter).

Hiroyuki Takano, secretary general of the Social Democratic Party in Oita, Murayama’s hometown, told AFP that the veteran leader had died of old age.

In his historic address in August 1995, Murayama stated that “Japan... through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”

“In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology,” he declared.

Murayama’s words became a cornerstone of Japan’s postwar diplomacy, with later prime ministers reiterating the same phrases — “deep remorse” and “heartfelt apology” — in statements marking the 60th and 70th anniversaries of the end of World War II.