70 Japanese Lawmakers Visit Yasukuni Shrine

   Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press)--Some 70 lawmakers of both chambers of Japan's parliament on Tuesday visited together war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its spring festival.
   They are members of a suprapartisan group promoting visits to the Shinto shrine in the Kudankita district in the Japanese capital's Chiyoda Ward.
   Yasukuni Shrine is regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism by neighboring countries including China and South Korea as it enshrines Class-A war criminals along with the war dead.
   Among the visitors were members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), also an opposition party.
   "The foundation of today's stable, thriving and peaceful Japan was laid by the spirits of many war dead," LDP lawmaker Ichiro Aisawa, who serves as deputy head of the suprapartisan group, told a press conference after the visit. "We visited the shrine with the hope that such history will never be forgotten."

(2025/04/22-13:33)