Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi must heed pressure from a powerful conservative group and halt his annual visits to a Tokyo war shrine to improve Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors, a veteran ruling party lawmaker said yesterday.
The Nippon Izokukai, which represents families of Japan's war dead and has long backed visits by Japanese prime ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine, cautioned Koizumi about his annual pilgrimages, saying "it is necessary to give consideration to neighboring countries and obtain their understanding," according to weekend news reports.
The Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other leaders convicted of the most serious war crimes at a 1946-1948 international war tribunal in Tokyo. Koizumi's visits there have outraged China and other Asian countries.
Koichi Kato, an LDP heavyweight and close Koizumi ally, said yesterday that the group's message was a clear signal to Koizumi to halt his visits -- and noted that an election pledge made to the group was the principal reason behind Koizumi's four pilgrimages to the memorial since taking office in 2001.
"Koizumi began his visits [to Yasukuni] at the request of the Nippon Izokukai. He linked the issue to his leadership campaign and pledged to keep his promise to them," Kato told TV Asahi.
"That group is now saying it is grateful for his efforts, but that if it causes this much trouble, the spirits of the war dead cannot rest in peace," he said. "He must stop his visits."
Nippon Izokukai, which represents about 1 million families, is a major backer of Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. It pushes a conservative agenda that opposes constructing an alternative site to Yasukuni or withdrawing the names of convicted war criminals that are honored there.
"It is now clear that the noose pressuring the prime minister to refrain from visits is tightening," the Mainichi newspaper said.
In a statement issued Saturday, Nippon Izokukai said the families did not want Koizumi's pilgrimages to turn into a political problem for Japan and urged him to consider the criticisms of China and South Korea ahead of any further visits, the reports said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including