Japan's former PM Murayama dies aged 101

Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama stands before reporters prior to his statement of war remorse at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Aug. 15, 1995. NAOKAZU OINUMA / AP

Japan's former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, best known for making a statement apologizing over World War II, died on Friday, October 17, aged 101, officials said. Murayama issued the 1995 proclamation on the 50th anniversary of Japan's surrender, expressing "deep remorse" over the country's atrocities in Asia. The statement became a benchmark for Tokyo's subsequent apologies over World War II.

"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, seen as the successor to Murayama's now-defunct Socialist Party, said on X.

Hiroyuki Takano, the secretary general of the Social Democratic Party in Oita, Murayama's hometown, told Agence France-Presse he had been informed that the former premier died of old age.

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