Akihiro Ota, who will become president of New Komeito at the party's Saturday convention, has one piece of advice for the new prime minister: Don't visit Yasukuni Shrine.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2006/nn20060930f1a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='322'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B> New Komeito acting Secretary General Akihiro Ota poses in front of a poster of party leader Takenori Kanzaki at the Diet building Wednesday. </B> YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>'The prime minister should refrain from visiting Yasukuni, and that is the position New Komeito has consistently taken,' Ota, 60, said in an interview with The Japan Times. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>For the past seven years, New Komeito, led by Takenori Kanzaki, has been the junior partner with the Liberal Democratic Party in the ruling coalition. Under the new prime ministership of LDP President Shinzo Abe, the two parties reconfirmed their continued alliance.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>However, Abe's hawkish views and his quest to amend the Constitution's war-renouncing clause are likely to clash with those of New Komeito, which is backed by Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest lay Buddhist organization and a staunch advocate of peace.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>One major policy difference expected to emerge is over Yasukuni Shrine, where not only the war dead but also 14 Class-A war criminals are honored. Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, made annual visits to the shrine, provoking outrage from China and South Korea. Abe has also often visited the shrine and is equivocal now about whether he will go as prime minister.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>New Komeito's role in the coalition is to step on both 'the accelerator and the brakes,' acting Secretary General Ota said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>' –

must step on the accelerator for structural reforms . . . but when the LDP goes too far, we need to (say) wait a minute" and hit the brakes, he said. Although Abe has not clearly stated if he will visit the shrine again, he did go to in April while serving as chief Cabinet secretary, a trip that was only revealed by the media recently.

Ota counts himself among advocates of establishing a national memorial to the war dead that is "religiously neutral," something akin to Okinawa's Cornerstone of Peace, which is dedicated to all the lives lost during the Battle of Okinawa.

The Cornerstone of Peace is nonreligious, and Ota stressed that he wants a similar memorial that people of any or no religion can "pay tribute to the memory of the war dead and pray for peace in a religiously neutral manner."

Another key bone of contention is whether Japan will engage in collective defense.