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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

LDP lawmakers set up a league to support Yasukuni visits

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's 116 junior lawmakers on June 28 established a group to support Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's Yasukuni Shrine visits. LDP Acting Secretary-General Abe Shinzo is one of the initiators of the group.

In open defiance of increasing opposition to the prime minister's Yasukuni visits, they held their inaugural meeting at the LDP head office in Tokyo.

Matsushita Tadahiro, Lower House member, chosen to head the "Junior Dietmembers' Group to Support Yasukuni Shrine Visits out of Concerns for Peace and True National Interests," said the group will continue to insist on the legitimacy of the prime minister's Yasukuni Shrine visits.

In Japan as well as internationally, criticism of the prime minister's visits to Yasukuni Shrine that justify Japan's war of aggression is growing. Calls for Koizumi's Yasukuni visits to be canceled are arising from within his own party as well as from former LDP prime ministers. - Akahata, June 29, 2005