By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSApril 22, 2009
TOKYO - Dozens of Japanese legislators prayed at a Tokyo war shrine Wednesday, a day after the prime minister annoyed Asian neighbours by sending an offering to the shrine, which is considered a symbol of Japan's militarist past.
About 90 legislators, mostly members of Prime Minister Taro Aso's Liberal Democratic party, visited the Yasukuni Shrine for an annual Shinto festival, a shrine official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
The attendants included former ministers, but none of the current members of the cabinet, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Aso on Tuesday sent a flowering evergreen tree to the shrine for the holiday.
He has refrained from visiting the shrine since taking office in September last year, avoiding the criticism some of his predecessors drew from Asian neighbours who accuse Japan of not fully facing up to wartime atrocities.
Still, Aso's offering of the potted plant to the shrine prompted negative reactions abroad, with South Korea's Foreign Ministry saying it was "very regrettable."
Yasukuni honours Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals. It also has a museum depicting Japan's wartime conquests as a noble enterprise.
The shrine has long been a source of debate in Japan, which adopted a an ant-war constitution after the Second World War.
Critics see it as a symbol of Japan's conquests in Asia.
Repeated visits to the war shrine by former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi strained Tokyo's diplomatic relations with China and South Korea in 2001-2005.
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