Citizens have banded together to arrange five days of demonstrations and forums in Tokyo in August to oppose Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's contentious visits to Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.
The events will run from Aug. 11 through 15, the anniversary of the end of World War II, under the banner "The Light of Peace to the Darkness of Yasukuni: A Candlelight Action," representatives of the group told a news conference Thursday.
Participants will include people from South Korea and Taiwan, the organizers told reporters, saying there is growing criticism of Koizumi's argument that he should be free to visit the shrine as a private citizen, although he has signed the shrine's guest register with hit title on most of his visits.
Two of the group's leaders are writer and peace activist Makoto Oda and Tsuguo Imamura, who was lead lawyer in a highly publicized lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court in 1977 setting criteria for acceptable state involvement in religious activities.
"We see it as a problem that the prime minister does not understand the pain felt by Asian war victims," said the Rev. Tsutomu Shoji, a Protestant minister who heads the Korea Museum in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.