Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi must heed pressure from a powerful conservative group and halt his annual visits to a Tokyo war shrine to improve Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors, a veteran ruling party lawmaker said yesterday.
The Nippon Izokukai, which represents families of Japan's war dead and has long backed visits by Japanese prime ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine, cautioned Koizumi about his annual pilgrimages, saying "it is necessary to give consideration to neighboring countries and obtain their understanding," according to weekend news reports.
The Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other leaders convicted of the most serious war crimes at a 1946-1948 international war tribunal in Tokyo. Koizumi's visits there have outraged China and other Asian countries.
Koichi Kato, an LDP heavyweight and close Koizumi ally, said yesterday that the group's message was a clear signal to Koizumi to halt his visits -- and noted that an election pledge made to the group was the principal reason behind Koizumi's four pilgrimages to the memorial since taking office in 2001.
"Koizumi began his visits [to Yasukuni] at the request of the Nippon Izokukai. He linked the issue to his leadership campaign and pledged to keep his promise to them," Kato told TV Asahi.
"That group is now saying it is grateful for his efforts, but that if it causes this much trouble, the spirits of the war dead cannot rest in peace," he said. "He must stop his visits."
Nippon Izokukai, which represents about 1 million families, is a major backer of Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. It pushes a conservative agenda that opposes constructing an alternative site to Yasukuni or withdrawing the names of convicted war criminals that are honored there.
"It is now clear that the noose pressuring the prime minister to refrain from visits is tightening," the Mainichi newspaper said.
In a statement issued Saturday, Nippon Izokukai said the families did not want Koizumi's pilgrimages to turn into a political problem for Japan and urged him to consider the criticisms of China and South Korea ahead of any further visits, the reports said.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
RSS