Print

Mail

wiki links

Japanese officials visit controversial Yasukuni shrine

Dozens of Japanese politicians yesterday paid their respects to war dead at a controversial shrine, but put no pressure on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to visit amid improving ties with Asian neighbors.

The Yasukuni shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 top war criminals from World War II. Chinese and Korean leaders have called the site a symbol of Japan’s past aggression and were enraged by former premier Junichiro Koizumi’s annual visits during his 2001-2006 tenure.

Sixty-two lawmakers, mostly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited the site for the Shinto shrine’s traditional spring festival. None were members of Fukuda’s Cabinet.

The pilgrimage came one day after President Lee Myung-Bak became the first South Korean leader to visit Tokyo in more than three years in the wake of a feud over Koizumi’s pilgrimage.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is due in Japan on May 6 — the first trip by Beijing’s top leader here in a decade.
This story has been viewed 1069 times.