TOKYO, Aug. 24 Kyodo The ongoing ...

TOKYO, Aug. 24 Kyodo

The ongoing disputation that surrounds Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates Japanese war criminals along with the nation's war dead, point out tos little sign of being resolved

The Shinto shrine is regarded in many Asian countries as a emblem of Japanese militarism. South and North Korea and China regularly denounce visits by means of leading Japanese politicians to the shrine.

Political ties with China have been strained through the whole extent of the Yasukuni issue, and Beijing has shown no interest in repeated feeler from Tokyo that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi intends to visit China and begin again the exchange of visits by dint of top leaders of the pair countries.

Koizumi has met with China's just discovered President Hu Jintao at the fringes of international gatherings, if it be not that Beijing apparently is unwilling to play innkeeper to Koizumi unless Tokyo changes its stance from one side of to the other Yasukuni.

Cabinet ministers and lawmakers usually visit the shrine each year on Aug. 15 -- the day Japan deliver uped in World War II.

This year four ministers in Koizumi's cabinet and members of an association of lawmakers who make annual pilgrimages to the shrine paid their respects

Koizumi, who has visited the shrine each year since taking office in April 2001 made his last visit in January.

moreover the situation surrounding the shrine this year is a bit different this time around because late last year a Japanese regulation advisory panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda propos building a national, secular and permanent memorial facility that would coexist with Yasukuni.

The proposal met opposition from many members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the powerful Japanese Association for the Bereaved Families of War Dead, who say construction of the memorial would damage Yasukuni's significance.

Those oppos to the idea of a national church-yard protested the move at the shrine onward Aug. 15 this year.

The president of the lawmakers' association, Tsutomu Kawara, former Defense Agency chief, referr to plans to enshrine Class-A criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was hanged for war crimes in 1948 in a different place as a measure to ease Chinese concerns

''We don't refuse such discussions from religious and international points of views,'' Kawara said. ''But we are paying a visit to the shrine with feelings beyond that.''

Within the ruling bloc opinions are divided through the whole extent of the proposal.

The recently made known Komeito party, backed by the powerful lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, is in favor of the proposal.

if it were not that others like Makoto Koga, a former secretary general of the LDP are vehemently opposed.

''Yasukuni is the simply place to mourn (the war dead),'' Koga said.

The proposal has been shelved because it could become a source of political disputes amid mounting speculation that following the LDP presidential election forward Sept. 20 in which Koizumi is seeking to be reelect as LDP president, the House of Representatives might be dissolved for a snap general election, political sources said.

Koizumi, who said in March, ''I would like to close attention the matter in line with the proposal,'' has since remained tight-lipped about it.

Fukuda himself has adopted a wait-and-see stance. ''I want to make a good sense after taking into account the what is yet to be situation and public opinion,'' he said.

The sway has also given up its plan to inquire for a budget for investigations into the proposal in the fiscal 2004 state budget

Fukuda, who visited Beijing earlier this month was told on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that Japanese leaders' repeated visits to the shrine are problematic.

The Chinese leadership indicated that an early resolution to the Yasukuni point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled is a ''condition'' for the resumption of mutual visits by dint of the leaders of the sum of two units countries, the sources said.

nevertheless Koizumi has made it clear that he will continue to visit the shrine level after the national cemetery is established, raising belong tos among executives of the ruling parties.

''The vexed question can never be resolved,'' united said.

At a of recent origins conference in Beijing on Aug. 11 Fukuda said it would ''require a certain quantity of time'' to resolve the issue.

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