Japan Press Weekly

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2021 August 11 - 17 [POLITICS]

Ex-PM Abe heads anti-constitutional rightist Shinto group

Former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo serves as the chairman of the Dietmembers' group affiliated with an anti-constitutional rightist religious group, called the "Shinto Political League", Akahata on August 15 learned from the list of directors it obtained.

According to the list, Vice Prime Minister and Financial Minister Aso Taro acts as an honorary advisor. Former speaker of the House of Representatives Ibuki Bunmei, Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide, and several other Liberal Democratic Party heavyweights are named on the list as advisors to the group.

Other sitting Cabinet members on the list are Hagiuda Koichi (Education Minister), Nishimura Yasutoshi (Economic Revitalization Minister), and Marukawa Tamayo (Olympic Minister).

The "Shinto Political League", as does the "Nippon Kaigi", justifies Japan's past war of aggression as a just war for Japan's self-defense and for the liberation of Asia. The League is a concerned body of the "Association of Shinto Shrines", the grand head of pro-Yasukuni constitutional revisionists, and is strongly opposed to gender equality and to the introduction of a separate surname system. As of July 21, 295 lawmakers, mainly LDP politicians, are members of this League.