The 60-member group, led by aboriginal lawmaker Kao-Chin Su-Mei, will also travel to Osaka where a court is expected to deliver a verdict on June 17 on a legal case seeking the removal of the names from the Yasukuni shrine.

"It's an insult to our dignity that our soldiers are enshrined there and the soldiers' descendants will join the protest to make their voices heard," said Chang Chun-chieh, an aide to lawmaker Kao-Chin.

"Victims and victimizers just can't be put side by side," he said.

Aboriginal groups have staged several protests against a local pro-Japan politician for making a pilgrimage to the Yasukuni shrine in April.

They demanded Su Chin-chiang, head of the minor Taiwan Solidarity Union, an ally of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, apologize for visiting the shrine dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted war criminals.

Former 'comfort women' -- those forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels during the Second World War II -- have also protested against Su's visit.

Su argued that he was paying tribute to some 28,000 Taiwanese -- many of them Taiwanese aborigines forced to join the Japanese military -- whose names were enshrined there, not war criminals.

Visits by Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine have enraged neighbouring countries who accuse Japan of glorifying its wartime aggression. Japan colonised Taiwan between 1985-1945.

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