Japan Press Weekly

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2025 August 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

88 ‘Sanseito’ lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug.15

On August 15, the day marking the end of World War II, 88 members of the newly-rising far-right “Sanseito” party led by its leader Kamiya Sohei, including all 18 Dietmembers and 70 local assemblymembers, visited the war-glorifying Yasukuni Shrine.

Hyakuta Naoki, leader of the Conservative Party of Japan, also visited the controversial shrine, and a large number right-wingers from opposition parties paid tribute at the shrine.

Sitting and former Cabinet ministers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party also worshipped at the shrine. Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru opted not to visit the shrine himself, but as LDP president, he sent a person in his stead to donate offerings at his own expense.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira, asked by reporters about the large number of Dietmembers and local assemblymembers from the LDP and the “Sanseito” party visiting Yasukuni Shrine, said, “That is a political demonstration representing a complete reversal of history, declaring that they as political parties advocate historical revisionism. Actions that glorify Japan’s past war of aggression must be severely criticized.”

The sitting and former Cabinet ministers who visited the shrine included Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Koizumi Shinjiro, Minister of Finance Kato Katsunobu, former Minister in charge of Economic Security Takaichi Sanae, and former Minister in charge of Economic Security Kobayashi Takayuki. Meanwhile, the number of Dietmembers who visited the shrine as part of an LDP-led cross-party group totaled 86 (52 Dietmembers and 34 proxies). The 86 included Dietmembers from the “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party and the Democratic Party for the People.

Yasukuni Shrine is a facility that asserts that Japan’s past war of aggression was a “just war” for “self-existence and self-defense” and “Asian liberation.” The acts of ministers and parliamentarians visiting religious establishments and offering donations blatantly violate the principle of “separation of religion and state” stipulated in the Constitution.