(dpa) - A documentary film by a Chinese director on Japan's controversial Yasukuni Shrine was encountering mounting resistance in Japan Monday as Tokyo cinema operators announced they would not be screening it as scheduled, Kyodo news agency reported.
The shrine honours Japanese war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals.
Humax Cinema Inc, which operates Ginza Cinepatos, said they had decided not to show it "out of concern that it could cause inconvenience to neighbouring commercial facilities."
Earlier Tokyo movie theatre operator T-Joy Co. said it would not show the film because of the potential "inconvenience" it could cause other tenants in the building.
Currently no cinema in Tokyo plans to screen the movie.
The documentary, entitled Yasukuni, was originally due to be screened in four cinemas in Tokyo on April 12. It is directed by 44- year-old Chinese director Yi Ling, who lives in Japan.
Yi Ling and other people connected with the film have allegedly received threats. The director spent 10 years working on the 123- minute film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and also won the documentary film prize at the International Film Festival in Hong Kong.
The film tells the story of several people whose opinions on both the war and the Yasukuni shrine vary. Central to the movie is a smith who forges Yasukuni swords.
The shrine was built in 1869 under Emperor Meiji and today it commemorates the 2.5 million Japanese who have died in wars since 1853.
Visits to the shrine by top Japanese politicians have sparked outrage in neighbouring Asian countries because it also commemorates Japanese convicted of committing war crimes in China and elsewhere during the Second World War.