April 22, 2008Sixty-two Diet members from a multi-party group supporting visits to Yasukuni Shrine paid a visit to the shrine on Tuesday morning during its spring festival.
The 62 politicians from the "Diet members association for visiting Yasukuni Shrine together," headed by former farm minister Yoshinobu Shimamura, consisted of 54 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members, two Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) members, one person from the People's New Party, one person from New Party Daichi, and four independent politicians.
Photo: Yoshinobu Shimamura, center front, and other Diet members visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku on Tuesday morning.No Cabinet ministers took part in the visit but participants from the government included Eriko Yamatani, an aide to the prime minister; Yoshio Nakagawa, a senior vice-minister of the Cabinet Office; deputy farm minister Masahiro Imamura; and five parliamentary secretaries.
In a news conference after the visit to the shrine, Shimamura commented on the problem of cinemas canceling screenings of the controversial documentary "Yasukuni," which is set at the shrine, saying, "We're not thinking of doing anything in particular about it."
He also commented on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's statement that he will not visit the shrine, saying, "People have various thoughts and they act on those. One shouldn't say it is good or bad."
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(Mainichi Japan) April 22, 2008
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