May 2000 New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has been accused of stirring dangerous religious sentiment by describing the county as a divine land with the emperor at its heart. The statement appears at odds with Japan's post-war constitution, which provides for a strict separation between church and state and specifically rejects the notion of imperial divinity. But a backlash is already evident, with the South Korean media castigating the Prime Minister over his comments.
Japan is a divine country centring on the emperor.
The government has been on the defensive since Mr Mori's installation as Prime Minister early last month, replacing Keizo Obuchi who died at the weekend. The Prime Minister has been attacked over his past while he and other key figures in the administration have offered conflicting accounts of the circumstances surrounding the Obuchi illness and the change in LDP leadership. Mr Mori defended his comments late yesterday, saying he had been stressing only that Japan should cherish its history and culture. Opposition leaders accused the Prime Minister of stirring support among religious groups for Japan's old Shintoist state. The mix of imperial divinity, state religion and militarism was instrumental in pushing Japan into the World War II under Emperor Hirohito.