Japan is studying a proposal to establish a secular war memorial separate from a Tokyo shrine that critics say glorifies Japan's past aggression in Asia, a government spokesman said yesterday.
The talk of an alternative to the Yasukuni Shrine comes amid speculation that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi could go there next week to mark the 60th anniversary since Japan's World War II surrender.
The proposal, submitted last week by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's junior coalition partner, the Komeito Party, calls for a budget to be set aside to consider possible locations and other details of a secular war memorial.
Such proposals have come up in the past, but fierce opposition to establishing an alternative to Yasukuni has blocked them. Still, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the government was looking at the plan.
"If a decision is made, there will be plenty of time to include it in next year's budget," Hosoda told reporters.
This is not the first time that some in Japan have considered an alternative to Yasukuni, which includes executed World War II criminals among the 2.5 million war dead honored there.
A special Cabinet committee studied the issue four years ago and concluded that a secular monument was necessary, but no steps have been taken to implement the plan. Many conservatives and a powerful association of families of fallen soldiers are against such plans.
A secular war memorial, however, is seen as one way to appease Japan's neighbors, who have repeatedly voiced anger over Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni. He has gone there four times since becoming prime minister in 2001, but has not gone since January last year. He has been coy about whether he will go on Aug. 15.
"It's something we've been urging for some time and a basic party policy," said Hideshiro Nishinaka, a Komeito official who worked on the proposal.
But some LDP lawmakers support Koizumi's visits and oppose a security memorial.
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