Ninety-six Diet members from various parties jointly paid a visit Friday to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where 14 Class-A war criminals are honored as well as more than 2 million Japanese war dead, as the shrine launched this year's three-day spring rites.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose yearly visits to the Shinto shrine since taking office in 2001 have been a constant source of friction with China and South Korea, dodged questions about whether he plans to visit it this year.
The shrine visitors included 87 lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party, two from the Democratic Party of Japan, and one each from two minor parties, Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) and Shinto Daichi (New Party Good Earth).