Yohei Kono, former top spokesman who issued Japan’s 1993 apology for wartime sex abuses, dies at 89

TOKYO, June 10, 2026 (Apex Times) - Yohei Kono, a veteran Japanese politician whose 1993 apology for Japan’s wartime sexual abuses helped shape the country’s official remembrance of World War II, has died. He was 89. Japanese officials said Kono died of old age, and his son, former Foreign Minister Taro Kono, said his death occurred Monday, according to the reports.

Kono delivered the apology in 1993 when he served as chief Cabinet secretary, a role that at the time made him Japan’s leading government spokesperson. In the statement, he acknowledged Japanese military involvement in forcing women into work at frontline brothels, an acknowledgment tied to investigations carried out after the war-era allegations came to broader international attention.

The 1993 statement was later followed by a wider government acknowledgment of wartime atrocities under Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995. Together, the two statements were widely viewed internationally as signs that Japan had come to terms with aspects of its wartime conduct, and they were also associated with improved relations with neighboring countries that suffered Japanese aggression and atrocities.

According to contemporaneous reporting, Kono placed importance on maintaining friendly ties with China, South Korea, and other Asian countries affected by Japanese actions before and during World War II. His approach was that the government’s official record should remain consistent with historical findings rather than be revised for domestic political convenience.

In later years, Kono’s apology drew renewed controversy inside Japan. The reports noted that some Japanese conservatives criticized the statements and sought to reduce or “overwrite” elements of the government’s historical accounts, arguing that focusing on negative history hurt national pride. Kono, according to the reporting, warned that any attempt to whitewash historical facts would “hurt the Japanese people’s reputation.”

Kono’s death follows years of public debate in Japan over how wartime history is taught, commemorated, and incorporated into official government statements. His remarks and the 1993 apology remain among the most frequently cited references in diplomatic and historical discussions between Japan and countries affected by the wartime “comfort women” system.

With Kono gone, Japan will also lose a senior figure identified with the government’s 1990s shift toward official recognition of Japanese military involvement in the abuses. His family and political office did not indicate immediate actions in the reporting beyond the announcement of his death and its cause.

Officials in Japan are expected to mark his passing through internal government procedures and memorial activities consistent with the standard protocols for senior former public officials, though specific dates and ceremonies were not included in the reports. Meanwhile, attention is likely to continue on how the government preserves or interprets Kono’s 1993 statement in ongoing historical and diplomatic disputes.