Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishida offered a ritual sacrifice Thursday to a shrine that worships the country’s war dead, a ceremonial act that has long incensed neighboring countries, a spokesman for the site said.
No Japanese prime minister has gone to Yasukuni Shrine since 2013, and Ishida’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, would also regularly send offerings for the shrine’s biannual spring and autumn festivals.
The Yasukuni shrine in downtown Tokyo commemorates 2.5 million war dead, the majority of whom were Japanese, who died in the late 19th century times forward in wars.
Among these are several prominent military and political leaders convicted of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war by an international tribunal before and during World War II.
Dozens of lawmakers make the pilgrimage each spring and autumn festival, plus in August to mark the anniversary of the emperor announcing Japan’s surrender in 1945.
However, a Japanese prime minister has not stepped foot there since 2013, when Shinzo Abe sparked fury in Beijing and Seoul and earned a rare diplomatic rebuke from a close ally, the United States.
The shrine spokesman, Muraoka, who gave only his last name, said the minister of health, labor, and welfare, Takamaro Fukuoka, sent a “masakaki” tree offering.
South Korea voiced “deep disappointment and regret that responsible leaders in Japan have once again offered tribute or visited the Yasukuni Shrine,” the country’s foreign ministry said Thursday.
“We call on the members of the newly formed Japanese cabinet to squarely face history and prove with practice modest reflection and sincere apology for past wrongs.”
Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, was approached for comment at a routine briefing. She said Yasukuni is “a symbol of Japan’s militaristic war of aggression. “
