Japan MPs to visit controversial shrine

Dozens of Japanese politicians, perhaps including cabinet ministers, are set to visit a highly controversial shrine to pay homage to the country’s World War II dead.

A group of national lawmakers including some from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have announced plans to visit the Yasukuni Shrine on Friday amid a four-day festival this week.

Japan’s Internal Affairs Minister Sanae Takaichi announced on Tuesday that she would pay homage at the shrine, though she may forgo the mass visit this week.

Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga downplayed any fall-out of a visit to the controversial war shrine.

“Since the start of the second Abe administration, our government’s position is that it is an individual decision if a minister visits the shrine in a personal capacity… It would be the same in any country that people pay respects to those who died for their country and pray for peace,” Yoshihide said.

Visits to Yasukuni by Japanese officials have infuriated neighboring China and the two Koreas.

The 2.5 million Japanese victims of the war enshrined there include 14 “class A war criminals” from World War II — national leaders that were either executed, died in prison or during their trials.

Japan’s Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Yoshitaka Shindo prayed at Yasukuni earlier this spring.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has expressed his desire to see Japan expand its role in regional defense, has also regularly visited Yasukuni. However, he only visited the shrine once in December as prime minister.

Some Japanese politicians who visit the shrine argue that they are not advocating war but are making a pacific statement by trying to remember those who died and suffered in the destructive war.

GMA/KA