ID :
200939
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 18:38
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/200939
The shortlink copeid
Noda, other Cabinet members to skip Yasukuni visit on Aug. 15
TOKYO, Aug. 12 Kyodo - Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, seen as a front-runner to become the next premier, and other members of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet on Friday expressed their intention not to visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on the Aug. 15 anniversary of the end of World War II this year.
It will thus likely be the second year in a row that Kan and all his Cabinet members have skipped visiting the Shinto shrine, which honors Japan's war dead as well as war criminals, on the anniversary, apparently out of consideration for some other countries that are offended by visits to the shrine by Cabinet members.
Kan has repeatedly said he has no plans to visit the shrine while he is in office.
Of the Cabinet members who gave press conferences Friday morning, Noda, who is viewed as a key contender to succeed Kan as head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and prime minister, said he has no plans to visit Yasukuni on Monday.
Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, said he will not visit the shrine on that day because it ''carries a political implication.''
Past visits by Japanese prime ministers and Cabinet ministers have sparked strong criticism, especially from Asian neighbors China and South Korea.
Yoshiaki Takaki, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, said, ''I will not visit in my capacity as a Cabinet member, in line with the Cabinet's way of thinking.''
National policy minister Koichiro Gemba also said he will not visit the shrine, while Environment Minister Satsuki Eda noted that the shrine had played the role of inciting people to war.
Since the DPJ came to power in 2009, it has sought to differentiate itself from the Liberal Democratic Party, which it ousted from an almost uninterrupted decades-long rule of Japan. During the LDP's administration, some prime ministers and Cabinet members visited the Shinto shrine, causing friction with neighboring countries.
It will thus likely be the second year in a row that Kan and all his Cabinet members have skipped visiting the Shinto shrine, which honors Japan's war dead as well as war criminals, on the anniversary, apparently out of consideration for some other countries that are offended by visits to the shrine by Cabinet members.
Kan has repeatedly said he has no plans to visit the shrine while he is in office.
Of the Cabinet members who gave press conferences Friday morning, Noda, who is viewed as a key contender to succeed Kan as head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and prime minister, said he has no plans to visit Yasukuni on Monday.
Goshi Hosono, minister in charge of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, said he will not visit the shrine on that day because it ''carries a political implication.''
Past visits by Japanese prime ministers and Cabinet ministers have sparked strong criticism, especially from Asian neighbors China and South Korea.
Yoshiaki Takaki, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, said, ''I will not visit in my capacity as a Cabinet member, in line with the Cabinet's way of thinking.''
National policy minister Koichiro Gemba also said he will not visit the shrine, while Environment Minister Satsuki Eda noted that the shrine had played the role of inciting people to war.
Since the DPJ came to power in 2009, it has sought to differentiate itself from the Liberal Democratic Party, which it ousted from an almost uninterrupted decades-long rule of Japan. During the LDP's administration, some prime ministers and Cabinet members visited the Shinto shrine, causing friction with neighboring countries.
