Tanigaki visits Yasukuni

LDP leader Yasukazu Tanigaki and former prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday, the 65th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

Tanigaki arrived at the shrine shortly after 11AM and entered the main building with LDP Secretary General Tadamori Oshima.

Abe visited the shrine before them. Asked about the decision by ministers in Kan's Cabinet not to visit the shrine, Abe said it would be problematic from the point of view of freedom of religion if the decision was led by the prime minister or the chief cabinet secretary.

Meanwhile, 41 members of a multi-party group of legislators who promote visits to the shrine, including those belonging to the governing Democratic Party, also paid a visit.
The chief of the group's secretariat, Upper House member Toshiei Mizuochi, told reporters that the cabinet ministers' decision not to visit the shrine is regrettable, as paying respect to war victims should cut across party lines and ideology.

Yasukuni enshrines the souls of war dead, including war criminals from World War Two.