Aso Proposes Turning Shrine Into Secular Memorial

In Tokyo today, Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso joined the rising number of voices that are calling for the country to transform the controversial Yasukuni Shrine into a secular entity sponsored by the government. MCT reports on a detailed series of steps proposed by Aso to eliminate the religious nature of the shrine. In recent years, a number of court cases have challenged as a violation of church-state separation visits by Japan's Prime Minister to the Shinto shrine. The shrine is also controversial because among the war dead it honors are Japanese war criminals. (See prior posting.)