Japan man nabbed in severed-finger shrine protest

TOKYO, Aug 23 (Reuters) A member of a Japanese right-wing group was arrested today after he sent his severed little finger to the ruling party's headquarters in protest at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's failure to visit a war shrine this month.

Abe stayed away from Yasukuni Shrine on the Aug 15 anniversary of the nation's World War Two surrender, avoiding a slight to those in China and South Korea who see the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

An envelope delivered to the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo also contained a letter of protest and a disk of photographs of the 54-year-old man cutting off his finger, a police official in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan, said.

''I thought they would ignore me if I just sent the letter, so I put my little finger in as well,'' Kyodo news agency quoted the man as telling police.

Removing part of a finger is a traditional form of punishment or atonement among gangsters in Japan.

REUTERS JT PM0938