Japan's Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader criticized Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Sunday for his suggestion that the country's emperor should visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported Monday.

In making such a suggestion, the foreign minister "ignored the constitutional principle of separation of politics and religion, as well as the severe consequences caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine," Mizuho Fukushima, the opposition party leader, was quoted by the paper as saying.

Aso's remarks "contain serious problems," said the opposition leader.

"The reason why the emperor decided to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine after 1975 is because it is a move which would affirm and glorify the aggression war," said Fukushima. "It would send a bad political message."

Aso said on Saturday that a visit to the controversial shrine by the emperor "would be the best," and defended Koizumi's repeated visits there, which have severely hurt the feelings of Asian people who suffered from atrocities by Japanese aggression army before and during WWII.

The Yasukuni Shrine started to enshrine top war criminals in 1978. Late Emperor Hirohito last visited it in 1975 and the present Emperor Akihito has never made any visit there.

Source: Xinhua