Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday he sees problems in the current method of honoring the war dead at Yasukuni Shrine and suggested that having a single religious institution in charge of the system needs changing.
Aso also said in a presentation at the Kyodo News headquarters in Tokyo that he will run in September's Liberal Democratic Party presidential election if he can collect the required 20 endorsements of party members.
"Basically, no matter who becomes the prime minister, the government cannot tell Yasukuni Shrine, a religious institution, to separate" the enshrinement of Class-A war criminals from World War II due to constitutional constraints, Aso said.