Murayama Statement

Japan, August 15, 1995: Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the 50th anniversary of the war's end The most-cited sentence in Japan's long argument with its neighbors about the past. Murayama expressed deep remorse and a heartfelt apology for the tremendous damage and suffering caused by Japan's colonial rule and aggression. Its strength is that it became a reference point: China's government still urges Tokyo to uphold it as a solemn commitment to the victim countries. Its weakness is that it was a cabinet statement rather than a law, so each new prime minister can be asked whether it still holds. Murayama died in October 2025 at 101.