Murayama reversed his party's long-standing opposition to the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty, and his government was criticized for its responses to the Great Hanshin earthquake and Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995.

After the Fishing Village Youth Alliance was disbanded after achieving successes such as establishing a fisheries cooperative, he subsequently worked as the secretary of the Oita Prefectural Employees' Labor Union.

However, several LDP heavyweights disagreed with the idea, including Yasuhiro Nakasone and Toshiki Kaifu, who stated that "We cannot support the chairman of the Socialist Party as the leader."

The Prime Minister issued a statement entitled "On the Commemoration of the End of World War II" after a unified Cabinet meeting.

Several scholars, led by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kozo Igarashi drafted the statement by incorporating things that Murayama had said in past speeches.

On 15 August 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, Murayama declared, "Now that the chairman of the Socialist Party has become prime minister, it is meaningless if he cannot issue a statement of this level."

[12] Conservative politicians and others have made comments which often differ from the Statement with denial for crimes committed by Japan, and for this, they are usually criticized heavily by the governments of China and South Korea.

He was heavily criticized by incumbent Prime Minister Tarō Asō for straying from the view established by the Murayama Statement, and was fired, with Tamogami going on to become a significant figure for the far-right in Japan, as displayed by his run in the 2014 Tokyo gubernatorial election.

Before the establishment of the Murayama Cabinet, lawsuits were filed by former comfort women in various locations demanding state-funded damage compensation and an apology from the Japanese government for its actions.

However, the Japanese government took the position that these issues had been resolved when treaties were concluded with other countries, and it was considered impossible to compensate former comfort women through the use of state funds.

On 17 January 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred, with the Japanese government being heavily criticized for its delayed response to the Hyōgo Prefecture.

When asked about the reason for the delay in dispatching the Japan Self-Defense Forces to the sight of the earthquake, Murayama, who had been relatively popular as a Prime Minister, received strong criticism from the Japanese opposition and his cabinet approval ratings took a downturn.

Sasa also wrote about an anecdote where Murayama attempted to hold a press conference immediately after the earthquake, but was halted by Cabinet Secretariat bureaucrats.

"[20] Due to the legal system, the Japan Self-Defense Forces could not be dispatched without a local request from the Governor of Hyōgo Prefecture, Toshitami Kaihara.

At 8:10 AM that day, the Ministry of Defense and Ground Self-Defense Force Himeji Garrison contacted the Hyogo Prefectural Office to request dispatch.

In 2007, Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara claimed that "During the [Hanshin] earthquake, an additional 2,000 people died because leaders were slow in making decisions (about JSDF deployment).

Additionally, Tomio Saito, who took office as the Hyogo Prefectural Disaster Prevention Supervisor after the earthquake, claims that Ishihara's comments are "totally baseless statements and are truly regrettable."

Aum Shinrikyo, which had been responsible for a series of incidents including the Tokyo subway sarin attack, was considered to be subject to the Subversive Activities Prevention Act, and the Public Security Intelligence Agency filed a request for disciplinary action against the doomsday cult.

The Public Safety Review Committee judged that the requirements for applying the Subversive Activities Prevention Act were not met, and the application was postponed.

Regarding the investigation into the subway sarin gas attack, his comments encouraging arrests via separate cases received mixed reviews, including a strong backlash from human rights lawyers.

The culprit demanded that the government release Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Asahara, who had been arrested and detained the month before.

Murayama consulted with Chair of the National Public Safety Commission Hiromu Nonaka and Minister of Transport Shizuka Kamei, and decided that he would not engage in any negotiations with the hijacker.

However, at a meeting before the 20th G7 summit in 1994, Murayama spoke in ambiguous terms about his upbringing in a poor fishing village and the process that led him to aspire to become a politician.

Although the decision was criticized as being arbitrary because it was decided from the top down, the party has endorsed it, and the modern day SDP maintains the more moderate outlook than the JSP held.

[29] By the time the Murayama Cabinet took office, the Sanrizuka Struggle had transitioned from violent to more non-violent resistance, although debate was still fierce on both sides.

In addition to the apology from Murayama and other government officials, the hard-line stance of residents opposed to Narita International Airport gradually softened due to repeated efforts by neutral committee members.

[30] In response to the Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo subway sarin attack, Murayama instructed Minister of Education Yoshinobu Shimamura to submit a bill to revise the Religious Corporations Act [ja].

[citation needed] When Kotaro Tawara launched the "Shigatsu-kai", which was heavily critical of the Soka Gakkai's political activities, Murayama attended with the title of General Secretary of the Japan Socialist Party.

"[31] In addition, the Murayama cabinet contained a significant number of figures who were heavily critical of Komeito and the Soka Gakkai's movements goals, including those who advocated to strengthen Article 20 of the Constitution, which maintains strict separation of church and state.

The Prime Minister's assistants were chosen from among the Diet members belonging to the three ruling parties, with Hidenao Nakagawa, Masaru Hayakawa, Jun Nishikori, and Saburo Toida all being appointed to the office.