Murayama Statement and Political Integration in Japan... Former Prime Minister Murayama Passes Away

First Japanese Prime Minister to Apologize for Colonial Rule

The late former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama during his lifetime

Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who is well-known in South Korea for the "Murayama Statement" in which he apologized for Japan's past colonial rule, passed away on October 17. He was 101 years old.

According to local Japanese media, former Prime Minister Murayama died of old age at a hospital in Oita City, Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, on this day.

A member of the Social Democratic Party (formerly the Japan Socialist Party), he served as Prime Minister from June 1994 to January 1996.

During his tenure in 1995, he issued the "Murayama Statement," which explicitly expressed reflection and an apology for Japan's colonial rule and aggression against neighboring countries.

This statement was the first by a Japanese Prime Minister to refer to past colonial rule as "aggression," and it was regarded as a more advanced apology and recognition of history compared to previous statements.

He was also the first Prime Minister from the Socialist Party in 47 years and led a coalition government that included the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.