Japan PM avoids Yasukuni Shrine on WWII anniversary, 4 ministers visit

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Saturday skipped a visit to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine and sent an offering instead, but Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and three other Cabinet members went there on the 81st anniversary of the end of World War II.

Despite Takaichi, a conservative, staying away from the shrine that honours convicted war criminals along with the war dead, China said it “deplores” and strongly protests the moves. South Korea also expressed regret and protested. Both countries suffered under Japan’s wartime aggression.

Upon arriving at Nippon Budokan Hall to attend her first war memorial ceremony since taking office last year, Takaichi turned towards Yasukuni Shrine across the road and bowed twice, clapped twice and bowed once in an apparent act of Shinto worship from a distance.

Before her premiership, she used to visit the shrine during its seasonal festivals and the August 15 anniversary but has refrained from going there, a move seen as reflecting her diplomatic considerations.

Takaichi, as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, paid for the offering out of her own pocket, according to a senior party executive.

“I fully understand how President Takaichi feels about the spirits of the war dead so I visited the shrine with her feelings in mind,” LDP Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki told reporters.

Yasukuni enshrined 14 wartime leaders as deities in 1978, most of whom were convicted as Class-A war criminals. They include General Hideki Tojo, a wartime prime minister who was executed in 1948 for crimes against peace.

Japan has spent the decades since the end of the war committing itself to peace under its war-renouncing Constitution. In what it has described as an increasingly severe security environment, the country has been boosting its defence capabilities and spending.