By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A man shot himself in the head in front of Japan’s parliament building early on Wednesday holding a letter of protest to the prime minister, Kyodo news agency reported.
The man, believed to be 58, was reportedly a right-wing activist from Osaka. He was carrying two envelopes, one containing a letter to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda asking him to toughen Japanese policy toward China.
The Associated Press news agency quoted an anonymous official from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police as saying the second letter contained an appeal to the media to encourage Japanese to visit the Yasukuni military shrine, which includes the graves of several war criminals and is a focus for Japan’s far-right.
Former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine six times during his term in office. The visits provoked strong condemnation from China and South Korea, and from many in Japan. Fukuda has not continued the tradition of visiting the shrine.