TOKYO: Eighty-four Japanese lawmakers, including a top adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, attended a festival at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which is vilified by Japan's Asian neighbours as a symbol of the country's past militarism, officials said.

The overwhelming majority were members of Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including one of his five special advisers and the deputy director of the Defence Agency, according to Hisanori Hiraoka, a secretary to ruling lawmaker Yasu Kano, co-organizer of the visit.

Assistants to another 90 lawmakers were also present at the shrine's Autumn festival, standing in for their bosses.

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine damaged Tokyo's diplomatic ties with China and South Korea, which heavily suffered under Japan's colonial aggression during the first half of the 20th century. The shrine honours Japanese war dead, including executed wartime leaders.

Abe has been a strong supporter of the Yasukuni visits, and reportedly made a trip to the shrine in April.

But he has refused to confirm the reported visit, and maintains a policy of neither confirming nor denying whether he will visit the shrine in the future, apparently hoping to neither anger other Asian nations nor provoke a backlash from Japanese conservatives who back such visits.

Abe, who has vowed to improve political ties with China and South Korea, held the first summit in five years with his Chinese counterparts during his fence-mending trip earlier this month to Beijing and Seoul.

During the talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Abe apologized for Japan's wartime brutality and said he would "act appropriately."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki defended the mass visit to the war shrine, which takes place several times a year. He said that he believed the lawmakers followed their feelings and that the government stands by its commitment to deepen a future-looking relationship with China. He added that Japan has never promised to stop shrine visits.

Shiozaki added: "There was nothing conclusive about the Japan-China summit on going to or not going to the Yasukuni Shrine."

Tsutomu Kawara, a ruling party lawmaker and former defence chief, told reporters that he supports the Japanese leader making a pilgrimage to the shrine despite protests from Japan's neighbours.

"Obviously, it is difficult for the prime minister to make a visit under the current circumstances. But we will continue to ask the prime minister to visit the shrine himself," Kawara told a news conference following the group visit to the shrine.

(China Daily 10/19/2006 page8)