The recent upsurge in the issuing of political apologies by governments around the world presages a previously under-appreciated, significant social phenomenon. Political apologies have opened the door to reconciliation with marginalized ethnic minorities and triggered changes in government policies that have the potential to affect the lives of millions of citizens. The phenomenon of political apologies bears watching very closely because of their sentinel value in signaling policy changes to come. Political apologies appear in four different basic forms categorized by their underlying self-explanatory motivational purposes. These I have named humanitarian, academic, economic, and personal. The issuing of political apologies based upon humanitarian, academic, and personal reasons can result in the movement of resources towards the recipient of the apology; however, the economically motivated political apology can have the opposite effect, namely, the movement of resources in the direction of the apologizer. While economic apologies offer some benefits for the recipient, in the overall scheme of things it is the apologizer who generally benefits the most. Apologies motivated by economic reasons appears to be a practice that has been adopted by the Japanese government post World War II as a means of influencing consumer markets in the Asian and other regions of the world. Regardless of motivational principles all political apologies have the effect of moving the source of the apology and its recipient closer together; reconciliation begins with an apology.