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

JCP takes to streets to criticize Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visit

On August 15, the 61st anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, the Japanese Communist Party took to the streets nationwide to criticize Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro for visiting Yasukuni Shrine that morning in defiance of public criticism.

In front of Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, JCP Policy Commission Chair Koike Akira (House of Councilors member) stated, "Because Yasukuni Shrine is a facility whose mission is to propagate the notion that the war Japan waged was right, the prime minister's visit to the shrine amounts to officially endorsing the glorification of the war of aggression."

In Kanagawa Prefecture, Hatano Kimie, former JCP House of Councilors member, said to passers-by, "Without reflecting on the war of aggression, Japan can not be accepted in the international community." She criticized the Liberal Democratic and Democratic parties for competing with each other to adversely revise the war-renouncing Constitution, and called for joining forces in defense of Article 9 of the Constitution.

In Saitama Prefecture, JCP House of Representatives member Shiokawa Tetsuya pointed out that Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visit was nothing less than declaring before the world that he has no critical reflection on the war, overturning the international order of peace centering on the United Nations.

Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Ishihara Shintaro on the same day also visited Yasukuni Shrine. This was his seventh visit since 2000.

Yoshida Nobuo, JCP Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members group secretary general, issued a statement sharply criticizing Ishihara's Yasukuni Shrine visit as a betrayal of public demands that he should not make a visit.
- Akahata, August 16, 2006