Aso says Yasukuni should not become election issue+

TOKYO, Aug. 14 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday said the war-related Yasukuni Shrine should
not become an issue in the Aug. 30 general election though the main opposition
leader has suggested that a new memorial institution could be built if his
party takes power.

''We should avoid talking about Yasukuni, at least in noisy arenas such as the
political world and elections,'' Aso told reporters, saying that he doubts the
issue would go away easily even if such a memorial institution were built.
''The biggest problem is if a consensus can be reached among the people (about
the need to build such a memorial institution),'' he said.
All but one of the 17 members of Aso's Cabinet are likely to refrain from
visiting the shrine on Saturday, the 64th anniversary of the end of World War
II, including Aso himself.
Yukio Hatoyama, president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan,
said Wednesday that a DPJ-led government would work on building a new state-run
memorial institution so that the emperor could go there to pay his respects to
the war dead.
''Even the emperor will not visit Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals
are enshrined,'' Hatoyama told reporters, referring to the war criminals
honored at the Tokyo shrine alongside Japan's war dead.
The shrine is widely seen in Asia as a symbol of Japan's militarist past.
In a policy booklet published last month, the DPJ proposed building a state-run
memorial institution that does not represent any particular faith.
As foreign minister, Aso proposed in August 2006 that Yasukuni Shrine be
converted into a state-run nonreligious institution so members of the imperial
family, the prime minister and other Cabinet ministers could visit it without
causing controversy.
But the campaign platform of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which Aso
leads as president, makes no mention of the Yasukuni issue.
==Kyodo