TOKYO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- On Wednesday evening, the news of the passing of Yohei Kono, former president of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, was reported by Japanese media. Condolences for the veteran statesman poured in from across society.
In April this year, Xinhua reporters had the opportunity to see Kono at the memorial service for former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. Kono, 89, walked slowly to Murayama's portrait to bid a final farewell to his longtime friend.
In his tribute to Murayama, Kono wrote: "You issued the Murayama Statement, which has been inherited by successive Japanese cabinets for more than 30 years. Your unwavering commitment to peace and your heartfelt aspirations for it are embodied in that statement. You faced Japan's history of colonial rule and aggression in Asia with sincerity, and that sense of historical responsibility and dedication to peace won high regard from the international community."
Looking back now, those words seem just as fitting for Kono himself.
In 1993, while serving as chief cabinet secretary, Kono issued the Kono Statement, acknowledging that the Japanese military had been directly involved in establishing "comfort stations" on the Korean Peninsula, in China, and elsewhere, and in the coercive recruitment of local women as "comfort women." He expressed apology and remorse.
For many years afterward, the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement together stood as cornerstone documents in Japan's postwar reckoning with history and served as a key gauge of the country's stance on its history of aggression and war responsibility.
"The 'comfort women' issue encapsulates the very nature of Japan's war of aggression," Atsushi Koketsu, professor emeritus at Yamaguchi University in Japan, told Xinhua. "To respond forthrightly to that issue and offer an apology amounts to apologizing for the war of aggression itself."
The Kono Statement, Koketsu noted, received broad support and recognition both at home and abroad at the time.
Throughout his career, Kono was a longstanding advocate for facing history squarely and cherishing peace. During a visit to China in June 2025 as president of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade, he said history should not be forgotten, nor should it be denied. The past cannot be changed, but the future can be shaped through efforts, he added.
Yet today, Japan's attitude toward historical issues appears to be moving in the opposite direction of what he had hoped for.
In recent years, the Japanese government has persistently called for the removal of "comfort women" statues overseas, viewing them as detrimental to Japan's national image.
In 2021, the government deemed terms such as "military comfort women" and "forcibly taken away" to be inappropriate. Many publishers subsequently revised textbook descriptions of issues related to "comfort women" and "wartime forced labor."
Some textbooks compiled by right-wing groups have gone so far as to describe "comfort women" as "paid workers" and to claim that "the Japanese military did not forcibly take them away."
"Today, Japan is experiencing a growing rightward drift and the resurgence of neo-militarism," Koketsu said. "Regrettably, the Kono Statement, much like the Murayama Statement, now faces the prospect of being marginalized or ignored altogether. Right-wing forces in Japan continue to try to deny the war of aggression and seek to justify it." He said it pains him deeply to witness such developments.
At the close of the memorial service for Murayama, Kono said: "Once again, politics has entered an age of turbulence, and military expansion continues to gather pace. It is a source of deep regret that, in times like these, we can no longer hear your unwavering calls for peace."
More than a month later, the man who issued the Kono Statement and who had held equally firm to historical reflection and the defense of peace passed away too.
In a tribute to Kono, Japan's Mainichi Shimbun wrote: "At a time when the deterioration of politics has become a growing concern, we can only hope that, from beyond, you will continue to ask those in power: Do you possess the resolve to bear the responsibilities your position requires?"
This pointed question may echo for a long time to come. ■
