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Two Japanese ministers were part of a cross-party group of lawmakers who visited a controversial Tokyo war shrine on Thursday, the day after opposition leader Shinzo Abe angered China and South Korea by paying homage there.
Dozens of parliamentarians were at Yasukuni Shrine as part of celebrations for Japan’s autumn festival.
Among the lawmakers were transport minister Yuichiro Hata of the ruling Democratic Party (DPJ) and postal reform minister Mikio Shimoji of DPJ’s junior coalition partner, People’s New Party, local media said.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has stayed away from the shrine and previously told his cabinet to do the same.
Opposition leader Shinzo Abe, a man well-placed to become Japan’s next prime minister, was at the Shinto shrine Wednesday, prompting criticism from China and South Korea.
China’s state media there said Abe’s visit would “further poison bilateral ties”.
“At such a delicate moment, Abe’s visit... has added insult to injury and dealt another blow to the already fragile Sino-Japanese relations,” the Xinhua news agency said.
“Provocative and short-sighted actions would harm the interests of Japan and its people,” it said, noting that already the “strained political ties have produced serious economic fallout for both sides”.
A South Korean foreign ministry spokesman expressed “deep regret and concern” that such a senior political leader and former prime minister saw fit to visit “a symbol of the Japanese war of aggression and militarism”.
Japan has spent the last few months at loggerheads with China over a group of islands in the East China Sea, and it is engaged in a propaganda war with South Korea over a long-standing territorial dispute involving a set of isolated islands.
Japan’s colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945 is still a source of bitter resentment among older generations and Abe, who was elected president of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party last month, is already an unpopular figure here.
As prime minister in 2007, he enraged South Koreans by denying the Japanese military’s direct involvement in forcing women, many from the Korean peninsula, into sexual slavery during World War II.
The Shinto shrine in central Tokyo honours 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted Class A war criminals from World War II.
Visits to the shrine by government ministers and high-profile figures spark outrage in China and on the Korean peninsula, where many feel Japan has failed to atone for its brutal aggression in the first half of the 20th century.
On August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the second world war, two ministers – Hata and Jin Matsubara, the minister in charge of the issue of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea – visited Yasukuni.


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Yasukuni Shrine

Japan ministers visit Tokyo war shrine amid anger from China, S Korea

Japan's transport minister Yuichiro Hata (centre) and other lawmakers visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Japan's Abe stirs anger with war shrine visit

Shinzo Abe puts on his shoes after his controversial visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

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Shinzo Abe