Hundreds of rightwingers and kin of the war dead made their annual pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine and lashed out at Cabinet members who gave the contentious Tokyo landmark a miss Friday, the 63rd anniversary of Japan's surrender.
Banners paraded at the shrine demanded that the state wage bold diplomacy, including pressing Japan's claim to two South Korea-controlled islets known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japan and prodding Beijing to carry out a thorough investigation into tainted Chinese "gyoza" dumplings.
The shrine has been a gathering point every Aug. 15 in the postwar years for many political groups as well as relatives of fallen service members.