Japanese leaders must refrain from visit the Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese scholar and former diplomat Yoshiki Mine said Thursday, adding that A-Class war criminals should never be honored.

"I believe that the Japanese leaders either on the day, August 15, or any other day should refrain from visit the shrine," Mine said during a speech in Japan Foreign Press Center.

He said there are many people in Japan hold similar opinion. But those who have strong national sentiment brush aside this kind of assertion, it is very pity.

The scholar who now works at the Canon Institute for Global Studies also said those A-Class war criminals should not be honored in Yasukuni Shrine, considering Japan had officially signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty and accepted the Tokyo Tribunal.