村山富市
Former PM Tomiichi Murayama had responded to Abe's statement, two hours after it had been announced. He had accused Abe of using words from the Murayama statement and rewording it to create a more abstract version of the statement. While Abe used words such as "aggression" in his statement, he did not mention about the specific behaviors of Japan during the war, nor did he address whom his statement was for. He stood by the statement and urged Abe to do the same.