Tomiichi Murayama

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 100) Ōita, Empire of Japan
Political party	Social Democratic
Other political affiliations	Japan Socialist Party (Until 1996)
Spouse	Yoshie Murayama ​ (m. 1953)​ [1]
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.