Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama speaks about Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of women and other issues involving the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Tokyo on May 18, 2015. Murayama died Friday. File Photo courtesy of Yonhap/EPA
Former Japan Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama has died at age 101, the government announced Friday.
A member of the Socialist Party, was prime minister in the 1990s, during which he dealt with several challenges, including the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the legacy of Minamata disease, caused by industrial mercury poisoning. He died in his home city of Oita, Japan.
“He shouldered the weighty responsibilities of the office of prime minister from 1994 to 1996, sparing no effort during his tenure as he dealt with numerous pressing challenges that included the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Aum Shinrikyo issue,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a statement. “Setting forth the principle of ‘a government that cares about people,’ he also demonstrated leadership in bringing a resolution to various issues related to Minamata Disease.”
Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese doomsday cult that carried out a sarin gas subway attack in Tokyo in 1995, killing 13 people and injuring 50.
“I cannot help but be filled with sorrow after hearing the sudden news of his passing,” Ishiba said. “I join the Japanese people in expressing my heartfelt condolences praying for the repose of his soul.”
Murayama won his first lower house election in 1972 after having been drafted into the military during World War II. He was stationed at Kumamoto at the end of the war. In 1993, he became chair of the Japan Socialist Party.
In 1994, he became the 81st prime minister of Japan, leading a coalition government. During his tenure, he and the coalition agreed to uphold the Japan-United States Security Treaty. He recognized the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces (the post-World War II military) and accepted the use of the Hinomaru flag (the flag of Japan) and the “Kimigayo” anthem, things the Socialist Party had previously opposed.
On the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in 1995, he issued the Murayama Statement, which said, “Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensnare the Japanese people in a fateful crisis, and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”
Though many opposed the statement at the time, especially the Japanese right-wing parties, no prime minister has since rejected it, The Japan Times reported.
