Families of Japanese war dead urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Saturday to show consideration for Asian countries with regard to his visits to a shrine seen by China and other countries in the region as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, Kyodo news agency reported.
Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, where 14 "Class A" war criminals convicted by an Allied war tribunal are honored with Japan's 2.5 million war dead, are at the heart of diplomatic rows with China and South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan's wartime aggression and colonization run deep.
A statement by the top leaders of the powerful Japan War Bereaved Association -- a key support group for Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party -- said it has been the "ardent wish" of the group to have prime ministers pay homage at the shrine.
"At the same time, it is most important that the spirits of the war dead rest in peace. It is necessary to give consideration to neighboring countries and obtain their understanding," Kyodo quoted the group as saying in a document issued at a meeting of its senior members in Tokyo.
Domestic debate
The unusual statement by the association could alter the domestic debate over Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni, since he is widely believed to have first pledged to go there to win support from the group in his 2001 bid to become party president.
The statement also opposed the notion of creating a new national memorial for Japan's war dead, an idea that has been floated as a way to let Japanese leaders honor the nation's war dead without angering other Asian countries.
Koizumi has visited Yasukuni once every year since taking office in 2001, and has repeatedly said he does so to honor the war dead and pray for peace, not to glorify past militarism.
He last paid his respects there in January 2004 and has said he would make an "appropriate decision" about when to go next.
Some conservatives in his ruling party are opposed to Koizumi giving in to demands from China in particular to halt his visits to Yasukuni. But he has come under growing pressure -- including from several of his predecessors in the nation's top job -- to rethink his stance in view of the diplomatic fallout.
