Tomiichi Murayama, who has died aged 101, served as prime minister of Japan for just over 18 months, from 1994 until 1996, but the brevity of his term belied its significance. He was his country’s first socialist premier in nearly 50 years, albeit one who governed in coalition with Japan’s traditional ruling party, the centre-right Liberal Democratic party (LDP). And his 1995 statement, “On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war’s end”, marked a historic apology to Japan’s Asian neighbours for the country’s imperialism and atrocities committed during the second world war.
Murayama’s premiership came about unexpectedly. The socialist Tetsu Katayama had briefly served as prime minister in 1947-48, but a centre-right government was the rule in postwar Japan. Since 1955, when a stable two-party system had emerged, the Japan Socialist party had been the main opposition force, but was never able to secure enough votes to challenge the dominance of the LDP, which retained power for nearly four decades.
However, a mixture of scandals and economic stagnation had sapped the ruling party’s popularity, and in 1993 it lost its majority, replaced by an unwieldy multiparty coalition under the reforming prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa. Although they did not secure the premiership, the socialists were the largest single party in this coalition. However, the cabinet consisted largely of conservatives.
In April 1994, Hosokawa stepped down in the face of allegations of corruption, and the premiership was taken by Tsutomu Hata. Hostile manoeuvres by Hata’s close colleague Ichiro Ozawa led Murayama – by now leader of the JSP – to withdraw socialist support from the coalition. When Hata resigned in June, Murayama forged a startling two-party coalition with the LDP, and attained the post of prime minister.
The position of the 70-year-old premier, nicknamed “the good grandpa” in the press, was weak. The LDP had a larger parliamentary representation than the socialists and took the majority of cabinet posts. Accordingly, Murayama was obliged to compromise: “This government,” he stated, “is not led by ideology, but rather politics today is led by pragmatic policy.” His party had traditionally opposed the security treaty between Japan and the US. In coalition, however, Murayama was obliged to accept its continuation.
Similarly, despite the JSP’s longstanding commitment to a strict interpretation of the pacifist Article 9 in the Japanese constitution, Murayama had to accept that Japan’s retention of a self-defence force was constitutional. He also reversed the socialists’ longstanding opposition to nuclear power in Japan, a concession which, after the disaster at the Fukushima power plant in 2011, he came to regret.
In fact, two disasters quickly plunged Murayama’s government into crisis. On 17 January 1995, a major earthquake devastated the city of Kobe. Murayama’s sluggish response to the crisis dented his popularity in a city which had long been a socialist power base, and shocked observers across Japan, especially when the local yakuza group organised promptly to supply aid.
Murayama giving a speech on security bills, Tokyo, Japan, July 2015. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
Murayama’s government had to face a further crisis that March, when the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist group released deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway. Again, the prime minister came in for criticism, when it was revealed that the government had suspected the cult of making sarin, but had failed to act in advance of the attack.
Arguably, Murayama’s most significant achievements were in foreign policy. His doveish attitudes were reflected in a thawing of relations with Japan’s Asian neighbours, strained since the second world war. In June 1995, a fund was established to compensate the so-called “comfort women”, citizens of Japan’s colonies who had been obliged to serve as prostitutes to the imperial Japanese army. The fund was essentially government-sponsored, but was administered by private volunteers and drew on private donations, leading to objections from South Korea, which demanded direct compensation from the Japanese state. Nonetheless, donations were given to survivors in Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia, accompanied by a signed note of apology from Murayama himself. Murayama continued to supervise the fund’s activities until it was wound up in 2007.
On 15 August 1995 came the most historic event of Murayama’s premiership, when he offered a categorical public apology for his country’s conduct during the second world war, and for the “tremendous damage and suffering” caused by Japanese aggression to foreign peoples and especially other Asians. “In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future,” he declared, “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.”
Though welcomed by many commentators, the gesture was controversial: Japan’s powerful nationalist wing condemned the prime minister’s apology, while China and South Korea regretted that it had taken 50 years for it to be made.
In domestic policy, Murayama aimed to strengthen the stuttering Japanese economy by putting together a fresh stimulus package. However, Japan remained stubbornly mired in recession. Murayama’s promises of political reform and economic deregulation ran into opposition from the entrenched bureaucracy, and his administration was obliged to raise the unpopular consumption tax to 4%. However, a number of progressive developments were achieved in social policy, where Murayama’s administration implemented new regulations to improve working conditions, and introduced new forms of child support and assistance for elderly and disabled people.
But his premiership was further undermined by health problems, and on 5 January 1996, he resigned. The prime minister’s post passed to the LDP head, Ryutaro Hashimoto, restoring the centre-right party to its usual dominant position.
Murayama remained active in retirement, conducting diplomacy with North Korea in the hope of improving relations, and campaigning for the retention of the pacifist article in the constitution in the face of attempts to water it down.
Murayama was one of 11 children born into a fishing family in Oita on Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu. He saw war service after being conscripted. His earliest political experience was gained in a fishermen’s union, after which he entered municipal and then prefectural government before winning election to the National Diet in 1972. In 1993, as a compromise candidate, he won the leadership of the Japan Socialist party, only a year before his unexpected ascent to the premiership.
Murayama’s wife, Yoshie, died last year. He is survived by two daughters and two grandchildren.
Tomiichi Murayama, politician, born 3 March 1924; died 17 October 2025
AloJapan.com