Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Sunday he will not make an official visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto memorial often viewed as a symbol of Japan's wartime past, on the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender to the Allied powers in World War II.
However, speaking at a press conference, Mori held out the possibility of visiting in a private capacity.
"It's a personal issue that concerns my thought, so I'll make a decision carefully and independently," Mori said when asked whether he would visit the shrine as a private citizen.
Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to the 2.4 million Japanese who have died in wars since the 19th century. Several class-A war criminals such as wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo are enshrined there.