The Japan-South Korea accord reached Monday on the "comfort women" issue drew a mix of reactions from people in Japan who have been engaged in efforts to resolve the protracted dispute.

"It has been a long time. I have hoped that it would be resolved as early as possible. It's a good thing that a resolution has come into sight," former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama said at a news conference in Oita Prefecture on Monday.

Murayama, who as prime minister apologized for Japan's wartime aggression in Asia in a landmark 1995 statement, said Tokyo's "acceptance of responsibility must have been the biggest factor" leading to the agreement, and that the two countries "must have hoped to move new relations forward" by resolving the comfort women issue.