48 lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine for annual autumn festival

TOKYO, Oct. 18 Kyodo - Three senior vice ministers, two parliamentary secretaries and one special adviser to Prime Minister Taro Aso were among the 48 lawmakers who paid a group visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo on Friday to attend the shrine's autumn festival.

In addition, proxies for 93 other members of both houses of the Diet also
visited the Shinto shrine Friday, the first day of the four-day annual rite.
No incumbent Cabinet ministers visited the shrine.
Visits by Japanese government leaders to Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war
criminals are enshrined along with the war dead, have been a source of dispute
with Japan's neighboring countries, notably China and South Korea, in recent
years.
The three senior vice ministers were Toshio Yamauchi of the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Hideaki Omura of the
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; and Sanae Takaichi of the Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry.
The other three government executives were Toru Toida, parliamentary secretary
for health, labor and welfare; Tetsuro Nomura, parliamentary secretary for
agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and Shunichi Yamaguchi, Aso's special
adviser on regional revitalization affairs.
All the six lawmakers belong to the governing Liberal Democratic Party.
Two of the LDP's most senior lawmakers -- Makoto Koga, chairman of the Election
Strategy Council, and Hidehisa Otsuji, head of the House of Councillors caucus
-- were also among the visitors.
Koga is head and Otsuji deputy head of Nippon Izokukai, an organization of
bereaved families of the war dead.
Masami Tanabu, a former farm minister and a member of the Democratic Party of
Japan, Tamisuke Watanuki, leader of the People's New Party, and Muneo Suzuki,
leader of the single-seat New Party Daichi, were among the opposition lawmakers
who visited the shrine.
Yoshinobu Shimamura, who heads the group of parliamentarians visiting the
shrine, told a news conference after the visit, ''Frankly speaking, we'd like
to see Prime Minister Aso visit the shrine. But he would make his own decision
as a public figure and may be busy.''
Japan's ties with neighboring countries became strained after former Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi repeatedly visited the shrine while in office.
China and South Korea say visits to the shrine by Japanese leaders revive
memories of Japanese militarism and of their suffering before and during World
War II.
==Kyodo