Japan's Former LDP President Yohei Kono Passes Away
Kono is best remembered internationally for the landmark Kono Statement of 1993, issued while he served as chief cabinet secretary. The declaration formally acknowledged the Japanese military's direct involvement in establishing "comfort stations" and forcibly recruiting women across the Korean Peninsula, China, and elsewhere — offering an explicit apology and expressing deep remorse for those actions.
Born in 1937, Kono was the son of former Japanese agriculture and forestry minister Ichiro Kono. He entered national politics when he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1967, launching a political career that would span decades.
Following the LDP's loss of power in 1993, Kono was elected party president. He subsequently served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, and later as speaker of the House of Representatives, cementing his standing as one of postwar Japan's most senior statesmen.
Throughout his later years, Kono remained a tireless advocate for strengthening Japan-China ties. During a visit to China in June 2025 in his capacity as president of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade, he delivered a characteristically measured message — that history must neither be forgotten nor denied, and that while the past cannot be changed, the future can be shaped through deliberate effort.
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