Japan's Aso wants state to run Yasukuni war shrine

TOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters) Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a dark horse candidate to become Japan's next prime minister, proposed today making the Yasukuni Shrine for Japanese war dead, now at the heart of a regional diplomatic feud, a secular, state-run memorial that the emperor could visit.

Ties with China and South Korea have chilled since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001 and began making annual pilgrimages to the Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, where Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honoured along with the war dead.

Speculation is mounting that Koizumi will visit the shrine next week on the Aug 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War Two. The question of whether his successor should also visit has become a focal point of the race to succeed Koizumi when he steps down in September.

Aso, known as a diplomatic hawk who has offended China and South Korea with remarks in the past, said his plan was not aimed at mollifying foreign countries.

Instead, he hopes to resolve a domestic debate that flares up whenever a Japanese leader visits the shrine and has prevented the emperor from going there since 14 ''Class A'' war criminals were added to the lists of those honoured at the shrine in 1978.

''It's about expressing our respect and gratitude for those who died for their country and praying for the peace of the souls of those who died...without all this fuss,'' Aso told a news conference.

''The tens of thousands of soldiers who died crying 'Long Life to the Emperor' filled those words with deep emotion,'' Aso said in a statement outlining his idea.

''So I strongly pray that the emperor can visit Yasukuni.'' HIGH HURDLE Aso's proposal -- which is premised on Yasukuni voluntarily abandoning its religious status -- could clear the way to remove the war criminals, including wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, from the lists of those honoured there.

But carrying out the proposal would likely be tough even if Aso, who lags far behind frontrunner Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe in opinion polls, becomes prime minister.

Other politicians have suggested creating a new secular war memorial, enhancing an existing memorial for unknown soldiers, or removing the war criminals from the lists of those honoured at Yasukuni as ways to resolve the diplomatic dilemma.

Shrine authorities have opposed all those ideas.

''It's hard to think that Yasukuni would give up its status as a religious institution since it won't even agree to separate the Class A criminals,'' senior ruling party lawmaker Taku Yamasaki told reporters yesterday.

Abe has defended Koizumi's visits to the shrine but has declined to say whether he would pay his respects there if he becomes prime minister. Media reported last week that he secretly visited the shrine last April.

Another dark horse contender, Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, has said he would refrain from visiting the shrine.

Aso has said he would decide by taking his personal beliefs and national interests into account, comments many interpret to mean he would refrain for a while at least.

Yasukuni, founded in 1869 and funded by the state until 1945, was central to the wartime state Shintoism which mobilised the Japanese people to fight in the name of a divine emperor.

REUTERS MS PC1053