TOKYO, April 22 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 Japanese lawmakers visited the contentious Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Friday on the occasion of the shrine's spring festival despite concerns from its neighboring countries that suffered from Japan's wartime atrocities.
The group comprised its head, Hidehisa Otsuji from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), along with the party's election strategy chief Toshiaki Endo and the ruling party's Diet affairs chief Tsuyoshi Takagi.
Other notable attendees included Shunsuke Mutai, senior vice minister for the environment, and Shingo Miyake, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs.
Of the 103 cross-party members were also representatives from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as a contingent of independent lawmakers.
The group's visit to the shrine, a symbol of Japan's past militarism, followed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday sending a ritual offering to the shrine.
Yasukuni Shrine, seen by neighboring countries as a symbol of Japan's past and brutal militarism, has long been a source of diplomatic friction with Japan's neighbors as it honors convicted war criminals together with the war dead.
Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 Class-A convicted war criminals among 2.5 million war dead from World War II and along with its historically inaccurate museum is a testament to Japan's past wartime crimes and wrongdoings.
Such visits and ritual offerings made in person or by proxy to the infamous shrine by Japanese leaders, officials and lawmakers have consistently sparked strong criticism and hurt the feelings of countries including China and South Korea and other countries brutalized by Japan before, during and after WWII.
Friday's visit comes as the Japanese government is seeking to improve ties with South Korea under President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who is sending a delegation to Japan from Sunday for talks with lawmakers, diplomats and business leaders here ahead of his inauguration in May.
Relations between Tokyo and Seoul have sunk to their worst level in decades over issues regarding the Imperial Japanese Army's forcible coercion into sexual slavery of girls and women at Japanese military brothels during WWII and Japan's use of Korean nationals as wartime laborers.
This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties between Japan and China, with Japan still not consistently and squarely facing the wartime atrocities it caused.
Visiting dignitaries from overseas including prime ministers and presidents who wish to pay their respects to the lives lost during the war visit the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery as this is an internationally accepted resting place of the souls lost during the war.
Countries victimized by Japan's wartime atrocities have consistently called on the Japanese government to square up to, rather than whitewash its wartime history and show more sincerity in admitting its wrongdoings, so that bilateral relations can be improved. ■