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Concept
Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine
Summary
The controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine are related to the choice of Japanese people who are honoured at this nationally significant Shinto shrine and war museum in central Tokyo. Most of the venerated dead served the Emperors of Japan during wars from 1867 to 1951 but they also include civilians in service and government officials. It is the belief of Shinto that Yasukuni enshrines the actual souls of the dead, known as kami in Japanese. The kami are honoured through liturgical texts and ritual incantations known as Norito.
However, of the 2,466,532 people named in the shrine's Book of Souls, 1,068 are war criminals who were convicted of war crimes, including 14 people who were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, following World War II. Because of the decision to honour individuals who were found responsible for serious breaches of international humanitarian law, China, Russia, South Korea and North Korea have called the Yasukuni Shrine an exemplar of the nationalist, revisionist and unapologetic approach Japan has taken towards its conduct during World War II. This has made visits to the shrine by Japanese prime ministers, cabinet members or parliamentarians extremely controversial. Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi made annual personal non-governmental visits from 2001 to 2006. Since 1985, China, North Korea, and South Korea have protested such visits.
The decision as to who is enshrined at Yasukuni is solely a religious activity due to the legal separation of State Shinto and the Government of Japan. The Yasukuni priesthood have complete religious autonomy over deciding whom they bestow enshrinement. It is thought that enshrinement is permanent and irreversible by the current Kannushi.
On March 29, 2007, a book of documents was released by Japan's National Diet Library called "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine Problems" including declassified documents from the Occupational Government, the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry and Yasukuni Shrine.
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