With the governing Liberal Democratic Party set to elect its new leader in September -- when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi step downs as LDP president (and hence as prime minister) some LDP lawmakers are proposing ways to solve the ongoing row over Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Visits to the shrine, which honors Japan's Class-A war criminals along with Japan's war dead, have stirred disputes with China and South Korea.
Several proposals have been aired, including enshrining Class-A war criminals at a separate facility, building a new national monument for the war dead, and expanding the existing Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for the War Dead in central Tokyo into a national memorial park.
Meanwhile, many are wondering whether Koizumi will make his sixth visit to the shrine as prime minister on Aug. 15, the day commemorating the end of World War II in 1945.