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Buddhist Group Asks Japanese PM to Cancel Yasukuni Shrine Visit
The Japan Buddhist Federation on Wednesday asked Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to cancel his visit to Yasukuni Shrine, federation officials said.
Paying an official visit to Yasukuni, a religious site, violates the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion and the separation of the state and religion, said the federation in a letter sent to the prime minister.
The federation said the state should not honor the war dead enshrined at Yasukuni as it would be involving itself in one particular religion. Yasukuni is a Shinto shrine.
The Yasukuni shrine, a bastion of the wartime government- sponsored Shintoism and symbol of militarism in Japan before and during World War II, houses 2.5 million war dead as well as the memorial tablets of 14 class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
Koizumi's pledge to visit Yasukuni has drew strong protest and criticism from its Asian neighbors and peace-loving groups.
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