Voices of Sadness over Murayama’s Death Pour in from Political World

Tokyo, Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)–Members of Japanese ruling and opposition parties expressed their sadness over the death of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on Friday. As then president of the Liberal Democratic Party, former House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, 88, made efforts to establish a coalition government with the Murayama-led Social Democratic Party of Japan and the Sakigake, an LDP splinter party, in 1994. “With his inherent sincerity and conviction, he performed admirably at Japan-U.S. and other summit meetings…and left many achievements,” Kono said in a statement, citing the 1995 Murayama statement expressing remorse and apologizing for Japan’s wartime actions as well as the law on support for hibakusha atomic bomb survivors. Kono, who recommended Murayama, then SDPJ chairman, as prime minister, acknowledged the criticism he faced at the time. “I am still convinced that the government was established because the LDP made a concession,” Kono said in the statement. After taking office, Murayama shifted the SDPJ’s basic policy, affirming Japan-U.S. security arrangements and the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces. “It was a major turning point,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba recalled. LDP President Sanae Takaichi said, “I think he made a very big policy shift and it must have been really difficult to persuade party members.” “Now, I myself am in a similar position,” she also said, expressing her intention to make every effort to establish a stable government. Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the Social Democratic Party, which succeeded the SDPJ, told reporters that Murayama was “like a guardian angel.” “I feel very lonely because he told me to do my best until the end,” Fukushima stressed, while praising the Murayama statement as one of his achievements. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]