Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama says current leader Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine was a mistake.
In a meeting of Japan’s Social Democratic Party, Murayama said Abe allowed his own feelings to come before the country’s interests.
Abe has said he regretted not visiting the controversial shrine where war criminals are honored during his last term as prime minister. But Murayama said Abe shouldn’t sacrifice the nation’s interests for his own. He added that Abe’s actions have been aimed at breaking the international order since the end of World War Two.
Murayama also called on Japanese businesses to pressure Abe’s cabinet into stopping his nationalist agenda. In 1995, during his term as prime minister, Tomiichi Murayama admitted to and apologized for Japan’s invasion of China.
