Dozens of Japanese politicians, possibly including Cabinet ministers, are poised to visit a Tokyo shrine condemned by China and the Koreas as a symbol of Tokyo’s militarist past, as it begins its autumn festival this week.
A cross-party group of national lawmakers plans to go to Yasukuni Shrine en masse on Friday as the four-day festival starts.
However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who infuriated Beijing and Seoul by visiting the shrine in December last year, is thought to be unlikely to go.
He will attend an Asia-Europe summit in Milan set for tomorrow and Friday and is believed to have one eye on budding signs of an improved relationship with China, with view to a possible summit on the sidelines of a major international meeting next month.
The parliamentarians’ group said it does not know how many will join Friday’s visit.
In recent years, dozens of lawmakers have participated in the shrine’s spring and autumn festivals as well as the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
The 145-year-old Shinto shrine honors about 2.5 million citizens who died in World War II and other conflicts, including 30,304 Taiwanese.
However, it is highly controversial because war criminals are among their number, including senior figures in the WWII administration, such as general Hideki Tojo, who authorized the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japan’s neighbors view pilgrimages there by high-profile politicians as an insult and a painful reminder of Tokyo’s aggression in the first half of the 20th century.
With Abe expected to stay away, eyes will be on his Cabinet.
Yesterday, Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs Sanae Takaichi suggested she would pay homage at the shrine, although not necessarily during the mass visit.
“I have offered my gratitude and respect to the souls [of the war dead] in spring, summer and autumn every year, as well as on other occasions,” she said.
“I’d like to pay homage when I have time,” she told reporters, according to Jiji Press news agency.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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