Wed Apr 22, 1:42 am ETTOKYO (AFP) – Nearly 90 Japanese politicians visited a controversial Tokyo shrine, the day after Prime Minister Taro Aso sent an offering there in honour of Japan's war dead.
Escorted by a Shinto priest, 87 ruling and opposition lawmakers, mostly from Aso's Liberal Democratic Party, sipped sake, or Japanese rice wine, at the Yasukuni shrine's traditional start of the spring festival.
The politicians included three vice-ministers and their number was up from 62 last year despite Tokyo's effort to improve ties with Asian countries angered by Japanese crimes in World War II.
On Tuesday day Aso confirmed that he had sent an offering to the shrine seen by Japan's Asian neighbours as a symbol of its past militarism.
While avoiding making a visit, Aso offered the shrine a potted sakaki plant, to mark the start of this year's three-day spring festival.
Yoshinobu Shimamura, a conservative, LDP lawmaker who led Wednesday's visit, welcomed Aso's gesture.
"I presume he wanted to express his will by offering sakaki as he cannot make a visit because of his position," the former agriculture minister told a news conference. "I think (Aso's offering) is a good thing."
The Yasukuni shrine honours Japan's 2.5 million World War II dead, including 14 top war criminals. Chinese and Korean leaders were enraged by former premier Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits there during his 2001-2006 tenure.
On Wednesday, the Japanese government tried to play down the impact of Aso's sakaki offering on relations with neighbour countries.
"Prime Minister Aso did it with his own pocket money in a private capacity," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference. "I don't think it would create a particular obstacle."
Earlier reports quoted a shrine official as saying that Aso had paid 50,000 yen (500 US dollars) out of his own pocket for the plant.
Resentment lingers in China over Japan's bloody occupation from 1931 to 1945, while many Koreans have bitter memories of its brutal colonial rule of their country from 1910 to 1945.
Aso, who faces elections this year, has declined to say whether he would visit the shrine while serving as prime minister, telling reporters only that he would "make the appropriate decision."
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