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Quick facts for kids Tomiichi Murayama
村山富市
Official portrait, 1994

Prime Minister of Japan
In office 30 June 1994 – 11 January 1996
Monarch	Akihito
Deputy	Yōhei Kōno Ryutaro Hashimoto
Preceded by	Tsutomu Hata
Succeeded by	Ryutaro Hashimoto
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party
In office 25 September 1993 – 28 September 1996
Preceded by	Sadao Yamahana
Succeeded by	Takako Doi
Member of the House of Representatives for Oita 1st district
In office 11 December 1972 – 19 May 1980
Preceded by	Isamu Murakami
Succeeded by	Isamu Murakami
In office 19 December 1983 – 2 June 2000
Preceded by	Isamu Murakami
Succeeded by	Ban Kugimiya
Member of the Ōita Assembly for Ōita City
In office 1963–1972
Member of the Ōita City Council
In office 1955–1963

Personal details
Born	(1924-03-03) 3 March 1924 (age 101) Ōita, Empire of Japan
Political party	Social Democratic
Other political affiliations	Japan Socialist Party (Until 1996)
Spouse	Yoshie Murayama (m. 1953)
Alma mater	Meiji University
Signature

Military career
Allegiance	Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1944–1945
Rank	Officer candidate
Battles/wars	World War II

Tomiichi Murayama (村山富市, Murayama Tomiichi, born 3 March 1924) is a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1994 to 1996. He was the country's first socialist premier since Tetsu Katayama in 1948, and is best remembered for the Murayama Statement on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, in which he officially apologized for Japan's past colonial wars and aggression.

Born in Ōita Prefecture, Murayama graduated from Meiji University in 1946, and became a labor union official in his home prefecture. He was elected to the Ōita City Council in 1955 as a member of the Japan Socialist Party; he was then elected to the Ōita Prefectural Assembly in 1963 and to the National Diet in 1972. After the JSP joined the government following the 1993 election, he became its leader, then became prime minister in 1994 as the head of a new coalition of the JSP, Liberal Democratic Party, and New Party Sakigake. Murayama reversed his party's long-standing opposition to the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty, and his government was criticized for its responses to the Great Hanshin earthquake and Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995. He resigned as prime minister in 1996, and reorganized the JSP as the Social Democratic Party. The new party lost many of its seats in the 1996 election, and he resigned as its leader soon after.

Murayama is currently the oldest living Japanese prime minister following the death of Yasuhiro Nakasone in 2019.

Early life and education

A teenage Murayama while working at a printing company.

Murayama was born in Ōita Prefecture on 3 March 1924; his father was a fisherman. He entered Meiji University in 1943 as a philosophy student, but was mobilised in 1944 and assigned to work in the Ishikawajima shipyards. Later that year, he was drafted into the Imperial Army and assigned to the 72nd Infantry of the 23rd Brigade of the 23rd Division as a private second class. He was demobilised following Japan's surrender with the rank of officer candidate. Following the death of Yasuhiro Nakasone in 2019, Murayama is the only living former prime minister with military service connected to the war.

Representative and JSP politician

Early career

In 1951, he ran for election as a member of the Oita City Council, but was defeated as runner-up. In 1953, he married his wife, Yoshie Murayama. In 1955, he ran for the Oita City Council again, and was elected as a member of the Japan Socialist Party, being elected twice after. After serving for eight years, he ran for the Prefectural Assembly of Oita in 1963, and was elected, there serving for nine years. He then ran in the 1972 Japanese general election for the former Oita's 1st, being placed at the top of the list and winning. He was then elected nine more times in the district. In 1973, he joined the "New Flow Association" with Takahiro Yokomichi and Hideo Den.

Chairman of Diet Affairs Committee

When Makoto Tanabe replaced Takako Doi as Chairman of the JSP, Murayama became chairman of the National Diet Committee. At the so-called "Peacekeeping session" in 1992, where it was debated if the Japan Self-Defense Forces should participate in United Nations peacekeeping work, Murayama took the role of the primary opposition leader to the bill. Nevertheless, it passed with the support of the LDP and other liberal parties. As he was involved with other parties due to his role as Chair of Diet Affairs, he had connections with several other party higher ups, including Seiroku Kajiyama of the LDP and Takeho Kanzaki of Komeito. In January 1993, Sadao Yamahana replaced Makoto Tanabe as chairman of the Socialist Party, but Murayama remained as chairman of the National Diet Committee.

In July, later that year, the 1993 election saw the LDP lose over 50 seats, and the JSP under Sadao Yamahana took a similar tumble, losing seats to new opposition parties such as the Japan Renewal Party or the Japan New Party, both under LDP defectors Tsutomu Hata and Morihiro Hosokawa respectively. In August, the Hosokawa Cabinet - the first non-LDP cabinet since the party's formation - was established. The JSP, despite being the biggest party, was not given the Prime Minister spot. Instead, Sadao Yamahana was named Minister in Charge of Political Reform. Yamahana resigned from JSP leadership to take responsibility for the poor showing in the 1993 election. Murayama was elected as leader without much in the way of opposition, appointing Wataru Kubo as General-Secretary. The Hosokawa cabinet survived for a year - it managed to pass the 1994 Japanese electoral reform, before Hosokawa resigned following revelations of a campaign finance scandal.

Following Hosokawa's resignation, bickering began over who would succeed him, with every party from the Hosokawa Cabinet eventually picking Tsutomu Hata. The Hata Cabinet was soon after sworn in with a confidence vote; however, just a few days after, the combined forces of the Japan Renewal Party, Kōmeitō, Democratic Socialist Party, Liberal Reform Federation, Japan New Party would form a unified parliamentary group, the "Kaishin", with the goal of undercutting JSP influence in the Hata Cabinet. The group would go on to form the New Frontier Party soon after. Murayama felt betrayed by the announcement - he announced the JSP would withdrawal from the coalition, leaving it with minority status. An internal battle waged in the JSP, with other leaders, such as Wataru Kubo, believing they should return to the Hata Cabinet.

On 25 June, the Hata Cabinet resigned en masse, believing they would not survive a confidence vote. Yōhei Kōno soon after entered talks with Murayama on the possibility of a grand coalition; they came to an agreement where Murayama would inherit the Prime Ministership from Hata soon after. However, several LDP heavyweights disagreed with the idea, including Yasuhiro Nakasone and Toshiki Kaifu, who stated that "We cannot support the chairman of the Socialist Party as the leader." A challenged to Murayama then emerged from Kaifu, who was nominated by rebel LDP members for Prime Minister. With no majority in the Japanese House of Representatives, a run-off was held between Kaifu and Murayama, which Murayama then won, making him the first Socialist Prime Minister since the LDP had formed in 1955.

Administration of the Murayama Cabinet

Murayama at the plenary session of the House of Representatives, 20 July 1994

The Murayama Cabinet was a coalition government, sometimes described as a grand coalition, which played a significant part in ending the often explosive LDP-JSP conflict which had dominated every election prior, even with third parties beginning to form in the seventies and eighties.

Tsuneo Watanabe praised Murayama in 2000, stating that "His greatest achievement was that he was a progressive cabinet in the best sense of the word, crushing the Socialist Party's anti-security, anti -American, opposition to the national anthem and flag, and greatly expanding the scope of unification of national opinion."

Policy platform

The LDP, New Party Sakigake, and the JSP had come to a basic policy agreement prior to the establishment of the cabinet, which served as the basis for it and the First Hashimoto Cabinet which succeeded it. These included:

Respect for the Constitution of Japan
Implementation of parallel voting, and the 1994 Japanese electoral reform
Administrative reform as a prerequisite for tax reform
Approve the direction of raising the consumption tax with some conditions
Maintaining the Japan Self-Defense Forces and Japan-U.S Security Treaty
Actively participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations
Carefully handle the issue of Japan and Permanent UNSC membership

In his policy speech after taking office as Prime Minister, he stated his wish for "people-friendly politics" and "peace of mind politics" as his administrative policies.

Murayama Statement

At a ceremony commemorating the 50th end of the Pacific War, Murayama announced the "Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the War's End", an official apology for the "invasion" and "colonial domination" of Asia that Japan undertook before and during the Pacific War and Second Sino-Japanese War. The Prime Minister issued a statement entitled "On the Commemoration of the End of World War II" after a unified Cabinet meeting. All successive cabinets since Murayama have clearly stated that they will follow the statement. The aptly name "Murayama Statement" has become established, and it is treated as the official position of the Japanese government.

Development of the Statement

It had been agreed upon by all three parties that with the war's end approaching its 50th anniversary, some sort of statement would have to be issued. Shortly After taking office as prime minister, Murayama toured ASEAN countries and said, "Although Asian countries outwardly look nice towards Japan, in reality, countries that have become economic powers may become military powers again. I felt that they hadn't cleaned up after themselves, and that I hope they don't make the same mistake again." Later, on 9 June 1995, a plenary session of the House of Representatives agreed to pass the Fusen Ketsugi statement. The struggle of finding a perfect middle ground was difficult, but the results were still promising; while a significant number of members of all parties abstained either out of a wish for a stronger or weaker statement, only 50 members of the LDP had abstained, wishing for a weaker statement. Somewhat frustrated by being unable to find the votes necessary to pass it unanimously, Murayama turned towards drawing up a separate statement.

Several scholars, led by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kozo Igarashi drafted the statement by incorporating things that Murayama had said in past speeches. After Murayama completed the text of the statement, he showed it to Ryutaro Hashimoto and the Chairman of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association. They had initial conflict over the "end of the war" and "defeat" in the text, but came to the agreement that defeat was the basis of the unification that came after of the people.

On 15 August 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, Murayama declared, "Now that the chairman of the Socialist Party has become prime minister, it is meaningless if he cannot issue a statement of this level." If there are any objections, Murayama swore to resign as prime minister. Koken Nosaka, who was appointed as the new Chief Cabinet Secretary in the cabinet reshuffle, was prepared to immediately dismiss any cabinet member who objected to the statement. At the cabinet meeting, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Teijirō Furukawa read out the statement, and Nosaka asked, "Do you have any objections?" All the cabinet members (including Murayama's reshuffle) signed the statement without raising a single objection, and it was unanimously approved by the Cabinet, the Murayama Statement being released soon after.

Reactions to the Murayama Statement

At the time of his statement, Murayama said he was just "stating the obvious thing". He did not expect that his successor, Ryutaro Hashimoto, would fully respect the statement. All cabinets since have clearly stated their intention to respect the statement.

The Murayama Statement is considered to be the official historical understanding taken by the Japanese government. Junichiro Koizumi also issued the Koizumi Statement on the 60th anniversary of the war's end in 2005, which followed the Murayama Statement.

Conservative politicians and others have made comments which often differ from the Statement with denial for crimes committed by Japan, and for this, they are usually criticized heavily by the governments of China and South Korea. Most undertake the purview that "Japan has officially apologized and compensated the countries concerned for the acts of aggression it allegedly committed during the war, there is no need for further apologies." Others have also stated that the Murayama Statement was pointless, with the fact that Japan committed the acts being something that can not be helped.

In November 2008, Chief of the Air Staff Toshio Tamogami published a paper titled "Was Japan an aggressive nation?". He was heavily criticized by incumbent Prime Minister Tarō Asō for straying from the view established by the Murayama Statement, and was fired, with Tamogami going on to become a significant figure for the far-right in Japan, as displayed by his run in the 2014 Tokyo gubernatorial election.

Before taking office as prime minister, Shinzo Abe had made statements critical of the Murayama Statement, and attention was being drawn both domestically and internationally to see what kind of statement Shinzo Abe will issue in 2015 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. But on 5 January of the same year, At the New Year's press conference, he stated, "The Abe Cabinet has inherited the positions of previous cabinets, including the Murayama Statement. On that basis, I would like to announce a new, future-oriented statement", making it clear that the Abe Cabinet would at-least somewhat respect the Murayama Statement.

Establishment of Asian Women's Fund

..... In July 1995, the Asian Women's Fund was established under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Murayama encouraged this.

..... Under the concept presented by Murayama, the government would establish a fund and the funds would be donated by the private sector, thereby avoiding direct investment of national funds and conveying the sincere feelings of the people who responded to the donations. The aim was to solve the problem, not through the government, but through private organizations. .....

Fumibei Hara became the first president of the organization, and Murayama, after retiring as Prime Minister, became the second acting president. He has been developing projects related to the honor and dignity of women in general. Murayama, the chairman of the board, announced that the group will disband in March 2007, when it is scheduled to develop support projects in the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of China, and conclude its Indonesia operations.

On 1 September 2000, during the Second Mori Cabinet, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa held a press conference regarding the National Fund for Asian Peace for Women and reiterated the Japanese government's recognition of the fund. .....

Diplomacy

Although the transition from the Hata Cabinet to the Murayama Cabinet was a change of government, the foreign policy was essentially inherited that of the previous Japanese government, maintaining administrative continuity.

United States

When the Murayama Cabinet was formed, then-President of the United States Bill Clinton was wary of a Prime Minister from the Socialist Party. However, at a meeting before the 20th G7 summit in 1994, Murayama spoke in ambiguous terms about his upbringing in a poor fishing village and the process that led him to aspire to become a politician. When Clinton heard this, he was deeply moved, and even at subsequent summits, he supported Murayama even though Murayama was near entirely unfamiliar with state visits beforehand. Murayama had only traveled overseas four times before, and although he was nervous about participating, he was able to get through the event without major incident.

Maintaining the Japan-US Security Treaty

On 20 July 1994, in his policy speech at the 130th session of the Diet, he declared that the Self-Defense Forces were constitutional and that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty would be maintained, changing the policies of the Japan Socialist Party up until then and establishing the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty as fundamental policy.

At this time, the manuscript for the speech read, Maintain the Japan-US security arrangement, but in the policy statement, Murayama read it as "We will firmly maintain the Japan-US security arrangement." This attracted attention.

This was a hard turn for Murayama's party, the Socialist Party. Although the decision was criticized as being arbitrary because it was decided from the top down, the party has endorsed it, and the modern day SDP maintains the more moderate outlook than the JSP held.

Domestic policy

Nobuo Ishihara, who served as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, said of the Murayama Cabinet, "It dealt with most of the long-pending issues in national politics. It did a great job. Reform, revision of the Self-Defense Forces Act to rescue Japanese nationals, enactment of Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Act,and enactment of Administrative Reform Act."

Acceptance of nuclear power

In a shift from the party's policy, which had led the anti-nuclear power movement up until now, the party stated in its parliamentary response that "Considering electricity demand, it is unavoidable to create a certain amount of nuclear power generation."

Enactment of recycling law

Under Murayama, the Act on Promotion of Separate Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging [ja] was passed, mandating separate collection of recyclable goods and trash.

Narita Airport struggle

By the time the Murayama Cabinet took office, the Sanrizuka Struggle had transitioned from violent to more non-violent resistance, although debate was still fierce on both sides. In response to the conclusions of the "Narita Airport Problem Symposium" held 15 times from November 1991 and the "Narita Airport Problem Round Table Conference" held 12 times from September 1993, Murayama decided on this issue in 1995. He apologized fully to the local community for the circumstances surrounding the airport issue. As a result, some landowners appeared willing to acquire land for the second phase of construction. Later, in 1996, a plan was developed to construct a temporary runway avoiding unpurchased land. In addition to the apology from Murayama and other government officials, the hard-line stance of residents opposed to Narita International Airport gradually softened due to repeated efforts by neutral committee members.

Selective surname system

Murayama was a strong supporter of the introduction of the selective surname system for married couples, allowing them to keep their surnames from before marriage.

Revision of Religious Corporation Law, and fight with Soka Gakkai

In response to the Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo subway sarin attack, Murayama instructed Minister of Education Yoshinobu Shimamura to submit a bill to revise the Religious Corporations Act [ja]. During the deliberations, the three ruling parties (LDP, JSP, and NPS) demanded that Soka Gakkai Honorary President Daisaku Ikeda and Soka Gakkai President Einosuke Akiya be subpoenaed as witnesses, leading to opposition from the New Frontier Party and ex-members of Kōmeitō who had merged into the NFP. The Diet came to a standstill as Komeito-affiliated members and members of the NFP attempted to block the vote from occurring by locking out Man Sasaki, chairman of the Special Committee on Religious Corporations in the House of Councilors, and picketing in and outside of the National Diet Building. In the end, Akiya was summoned to the Diet as an expert witness, and the revised Religious Corporations Law was enacted.

Furthermore, Murayama was known to be critical of the Soka Gakkai movement as a whole. When Kotaro Tawara launched the "Shigatsu-kai", which was heavily critical of the Soka Gakkai's political activities, Murayama attended with the title of General Secretary of the Japan Socialist Party. When he retired as Prime Minister in January 1996, he told executives of the three ruling parties that "I want the three-party coalition to be preserved. That is my wish. I do not want this country to be under the control of Soka Gakkai. We cannot leave it to one political party to decide." In addition, the Murayama cabinet contained a significant number of figures who were heavily critical of Komeito and the Soka Gakkai's movements goals, including those who advocated to strengthen Article 20 of the Constitution, which maintains strict separation of church and state.

Strengthening the Prime Minister's Office

Upon entering the Prime Minister's Office, Murayama felt a sense of crisis because, with the exception of the Prime Minister, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, and the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, all staff at the Prime Minister's Office were career bureaucrats. "The Prime Minister's Office is not just an office that conducts administration , but also an office that makes political decisions." The post of "Assistant to the Prime Minister" was created for this reason. The Prime Minister's assistants were chosen from among the Diet members belonging to the three ruling parties, with Hidenao Nakagawa, Masaru Hayakawa, Jun Nishikori, and Saburo Toida all being appointed to the office. The appointed assistant to the Prime Minister was in charge of providing opinions on the Prime Minister's speeches and answers, as well as gathering information on political issues. The post of "Aide to the Prime Minister" was considered a personal advisor to the Prime Minister, but the Cabinet Act was later amended and the post of "Aide to the Prime Minister" was legislated to be more political in nature.

After politics

With Yoshihiko Okabe (28 November 2015)

In 2000, Murayama retired from politics. He and Mutsuko Miki traveled to North Korea in 2000 to promote better bilateral relations between the two countries.

..... After providing compensation and working on various projects, the fund was dissolved on 31 March 2007.

Murayama turned 100 on 3 March 2024.

Honours

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers (2006)