Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama speaks during an interview with Reuters at the Social Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo March 10, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

"POST-WAR REGIME"

Murayama, a spry 91-year-old who lives on his lawmaker's pension on Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu and who is famed for his trademark bushy white eyebrows, has retired from politics. But his comments are garnering widespread attention at a time when liberal voices in Japan have become more muted.

Recalling the fraught process of crafting his apology and gaining agreement of conservatives in his cabinet, Murayama said when the statement was read out to his cabinet ministers, there were no remarks at all - neither for nor against.

"I was relieved," he said.

Abe has made clear that his goal is to revise the constitution's pacifist Article 9 but Murayama said that Japan's public would not easily agree to change a clause that he and other proponents say has kept the country at peace since 1945.

"Mr. Abe stresses the dangers in Asia ... and is trying to create an environment for revising the constitution, but the people as a whole will not agree," Murayama said.