I remember talking to someone early on after I was sober about how I suddenly felt awkward at parties. They said, 'Well, you're supposed to. Everyone feels awkward at parties.' It's an appropriate feeling to feel.

I didn't want to see her because it would make me feel better. I came because without her, it's hard to remember who I am.

When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.

Our character is mainly shaped by our primary social community - the people with whom we eat, play, converse, and study.

I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.

I have to express sympathy from the bottom of my heart to those people who were taken as wartime comfort women. As a human being, I would like to express my sympathies, and also as prime minister of Japan I need to apologize to them.