Ex-premier Aso visits Yasukuni Shrine+

TOKYO, Oct. 20 Kyodo - Former Prime Minister Taro Aso visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine last weekend, while a total of 54 lawmakers paid a visit Tuesday to the war-related shrine during its annual fall festival.

Aso made the visit on Saturday, the first day of the festival, according to
officials linked to lawmakers advocating group visits to the shrine by
parliamentarians.
In his one-year stint as prime minister, Aso did not visit the shrine seen by
Asian neighbors especially as glorifying Japan's militaristic past. He made an
offering in April without visiting the shrine for its spring festival.
Past visits by Japanese leaders to the Shinto shrine, which honors war
criminals along with the war dead, have been a source of dispute with the
country's neighbors such as China and South Korea.
On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said its stand on the shrine remains
unchanged.
''We hope the Japanese side will properly deal with the issue,''
spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at a regular press conference.
On Tuesday, no incumbent members of the current Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama took part in the group visit, which was headed by Hidehisa Otsuji,
chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party caucus in the upper house.
Hatoyama, president of the Democratic Party of Japan that defeated the
long-ruling LDP in the Aug. 30 general election, has expressed his intention
not to visit the shrine.
''Japan made a promise to honor the war dead at Yasukuni,'' Otsuji told
reporters after the visit, urging Hatoyama to pay tribute.
The visitors from the LDP included lower house vice speaker Seishiro Eto,
Ryotaro Tanose, chairman of the party's General Council, and former Secretary
General Makoto Koga. LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki made a visit on Monday.
Former economy minister Takeo Hiranuma and New Party Daichi leader Muneo Suzuki
were also among those who visited Yasukuni.
==Kyodo
2009-10-20 23:45:01