일본인과 靖國神社 - 참배와 반대에 있어서 신사를 둘러싼 성격규명에 관한 연구 -

Abstract

This article aims to focus on the understanding of why the Yasukuni Shrine issue is still important in the Japanese society even now, when fifty years have passed since postwar. The Yasukuni Shrine issue still has a big influence on the Japanese society, even though there has been changes in the Japanese political economy since the postwar. Meanwhile, most of the previous studies of the Yasukuni Shrine issue were focused on domestic historical context, and payed little attention to the domestic pros and cons of worshiping Yasukuni Shrine. Since year 2000, after the Japanese economy depression, Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine was blamed by the Korean and Chinese governments due to Japan's non-reflection of the war. It led to diplomatic issues among the northeast Asian countries. However, the Japanese government insisted that worshiping at the Yasukuni Shrine is a domestic issue rather than an international issue. The reason why Yasukuni issue is turning into a global debate is that in the shrine, not only first class Japanese war criminals were dedicated, but also Korean and Taiwanese former soldiers. And as the Japanese society is swinging to the right, the issue of when Premier of Japan will visit the Yasukuni Shrine is becoming important to northeast Asian countries. Therefore, this thesis aims to analyze how Japan views the issue of Japanese Premiers visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, and the pros and cons on worshiping the Yasukuni Shrine.