80 Japanese lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine

April 20, 2018

Tokyo- Some 80 Japanese lawmakers made a group visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Friday, a day before the start of the spring festival at the war-linked Shinto shrine.

The lawmakers, mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Party of Hope and Nippon Ishin no Kai, belong to a nonpartisan group promoting visits to Yasukuni by lawmakers.

The visitors included Shinsuke Okuno, state minister of internal affairs and communications, and five other incumbent state ministers and parliamentary vice ministers.

"Now that we face challenges at home and abroad, I want Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to make a visit, bow his head to those who gave their lives for the country and steer the country to live up to their expectations," former House of Councillors Vice President Hidehisa Otsuji, who heads the nonpartisan group, told a news conference.

The remarks by Otsuji, an LDP member, apparently reflect the alleged sexual harassment by Vice Finance Minister Junichi Fukuda, who tendered his resignation on Wednesday, and the manipulation of Finance Ministry documents related to the discount sale of a state land plot to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, once linked to Abe's wife, Akie.

Yasukuni Shrine honors Class-A World War II criminals along with the war dead. In China and South Korea, which suffered Japanese wartime atrocities, it is regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Jiji Press