Nearly 100 Japanese parliamentary members from various political
parties paid a joint visit to the notorious war-related Yasukuni
Shrine on Friday morning.
The shrine visitors included 87 lawmakers from the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party, two from the main opposition Democratic
Party of Japan, one each from the minor People's New Party and New
Party Daichi, and six parliamentary secretaries of Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.
Apart from the group, the former speaker of the House of
Representatives, Tamisuke Watanuki, leader of the People's New
Party, also visited the shrine Friday, according to Kyodo News.
Koizumi, who has visited the Yasukuni Shrine in defiance of
strong protests from China and other Asian nations for five
consecutive years since taking office in 2001, said on late
Thursday that he will "decide appropriately" whether to visit the
shrine during its annual spring festival starting from Friday.
Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated to the
lowest level since their normalization in 1972, due to Koizumi's
repeated visits to the shrine.
The shrine honors more than 2 million Japanese war dead along
with 14 of Japan's wartime leaders charged as Class-A war
criminals, who were responsible for the most atrocious crimes
during Japan's war of aggression against its Asian neighbors.
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2006)
