Murayama, in office from 1994 to 1996, issued the 1995 statement on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in which he expressed “deep remorse” over the country’s atrocities in Asia.

“Tomiichi Murayama, the father of Japanese politics, passed away today at 11.28am 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 AFP he had been informed that the former premier died of old age.

In the landmark statement in August 1995, Murayama said that “Japan…through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations”.

“In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, 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,” the statement said.

The phrases “deep remorse” and “heartfelt apology” were later used by successive Japanese prime ministers when marking the 60th and 70th World War II anniversaries.