TOKYO (Reuters) -Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who died Friday aged 101, was best known for his landmark apology for Japan’s World War Two aggression 50 years after its surrender, an expression of contrition that became the standard for subsequent leaders.

As head of an unwieldy coalition of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party and his own Socialist Party from 1994 to 1996, the bushy-eyebrowed Murayama oversaw a period of turmoil including a devastating 1995 earthquake in western Japan and a deadly doomsday cult’s sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways.

Murayama, however, will be remembered mainly for the statement he issued on August 15, 1995, using unprecedented language to apologise for his nation’s actions during a conflict that left a lasting legacy of bitterness with Asi

See Full Page