A former vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party said Sunday he thinks Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Yasukuni Shrine by the end of the year.
"I don't know when he is going. But I think he is going to visit Yasukuni Shrine within this year," Taku Yamasaki, one of Koizumi's closest allies, said on a Fuji TV political talk show.
Yamasaki said Koizumi holds a strong political stance about the importance of visiting the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, and this isn't likely to change.
Koizumi has indicated he will continue making his controversial annual visits to Yasukuni, saying several times before the Sept. 11 general election he does not approve of outside influence on a matter involving his personal desire to pay tribute to the war dead.