The government should not look into the responsibility of the accused Class-A war criminals honored at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine and instead count them among the nation's 2.46 million war dead, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.
Abe's comments came after Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing compared Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Yasukuni visits to German leaders going to memorials for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Abe told reporters that Koizumi visits the war-related shrine to "pay respect" to the people "who died for the country."