Tokyo, Oct 17 (AP) Japan’s former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, renowned for his 1995 “Murayama statement” that apologised to Asian victims of Japan’s aggressive wartime actions, passed away on Friday at the age of 101.
Murayama died in a hospital located in his birthplace, Oita, in southwestern Japan, as confirmed by Mizuho Fukushima, the head of Japan’s Social Democratic Party.
Murayama, who once led the Japan Socialist Party, was prime minister from June 1994 to January 1996, heading a coalition government during his term.
On August 15, 1995, he issued a landmark apology to mark the 50th anniversary of Japan’s unconditional surrender at the end of World War II, which is regarded as the country’s main acknowledgment of its wartime and colonial misdeeds.
This statement remained the foundation of Japan’s official stance until Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with his nationalist views, ceased such apologies in 2013.
Murayama had voiced concerns over the increasing efforts by nationalist lawmakers to discredit the acknowledgment of forced prostitution, often pointing to the lack of formal wartime documentation that explicitly states that Asian women were systematically coerced by the government to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers in military brothels. (AP)
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