history

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

JCP Ichida criticizes Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe for visiting Yasukuni Shrine

On August 4, it was revealed that Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo visited Yasukuni Shrine on April 15.

According to government sources, Abe visited the shrine a week before the shrine's three-day spring rites that began April 21 wearing a morning coat, and signed the shrine's register book as "Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo."

It was the first time for Abe to visit the shrine since he assumed the post of Chief Cabinet Secretary last October. He visited the shrine on August 15, 2004 when he was the Liberal Democratic Party secretary general, and on August 15, 2005 when he was the acting LDP secretary general.

Asked by reporters to comment on the revelation, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the same day said as follows:

"Yasukuni Shrine has been playing a key role in propagating across the nation a historical view that Japan's war of aggression was a 'right war fought for justice and the liberation of Asia.' As the visit to the shrine by a Chief Cabinet Secretary, a linchpin of a cabinet, amounts to government approval of such an idea, his act should never be condoned. It fundamentally reneges on the promise that Japan will never again wage a war of aggression, Japan's postwar starting point on which Japan joined international society.

At a press conference held on August 4, Abe said, 'I won't say whether I will visit the shrine or not, and whether I have visited or not.' This sets out the position of the Chief Cabinet Secretary and is not a question of his personal thoughts. How irresponsible it is for a politician who intends to run in the LDP presidential election to refuse to speak about such a basic question that concerns Japan's postwar starting point!"

Asked about a visit to Yasukuni Shrine that Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro may make on August 15, Ichida said:

"He should not do so. Whether it is August 15 or not, there is no difference in essence. Visiting Yasukuni Shrine is wrong and will worsen the situation of Japan's diplomacy which has already reached a stalemate."
- Akahata, August 5, 2006