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U.S. Lawmaker Blasts Yasukuni Visits MAY 15, 2006 03:10 by Young-A Soh (sya@donga.com) U.S. political leaders voiced strong concerns over the Japanese prime ministerfs paying respects at the Yasukuni Shrine. Thus, it is expected that the controversies over the Yasukuni Shrine will heat up in Japan with its election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president slated for this September. Stop Paying Visits to the Shrine If to Give an Address at the U.S. Congress – The Asahi Shimbun reported on May 13 that the U.S. House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (Republican, picture) demanded that Japanese Prime...

Almost four-fifths of respondents to a government survey said Japan must improve its relations with neighboring China, which have been strained over a spate of disputes, the Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday. The study, which polled 1,314 Japanese voters last month, found that 67 percent of respondents said relations with China weren't good and 77.9 percent said ties needed to be improved. Asked what specific problems were contributing to deteriorating relations with Beijing, nearly 59 percent of respondents raised differences over interpretations of wartime history, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine critics say glorifies Japan's militaristic past....

It's no secret that China has been vocal about visits made by Japanese leaders to the Yasukuni war shrine. But it has been largely seen as a Northeast Asian issue to be hashed out among Japan, China and South Korea...until now.A Japan Today article reports this about Bush's recent visit to China: When Bush met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao during his weekend visit to Beijing, the Chinese officials "approached Bush" to elaborate on China's view of high-level visits to the Tokyo shrine that honors 14 Class-A war criminals among the war dead, Foreign Ministry...