Japan’s first lady posts photos of visit to shrine that honours war criminals - after Tokyo makes landmark apology to Korean sex slaves

Japanese first lady Akie Abe said she has again visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo, posting photos of the site on the same day Japan and South Korea struck a landmark agreement on wartime sex slaves.

“My final visit of the year,” Abe, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wrote Monday on her Facebook page, also noting that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

The shrine honours millions of Japan’s war dead, including several senior military and political figures convicted of war crimes after the second world war, and visits by high-profile figures anger wartime adversaries China and South Korea.

Abe, known as a fan of South Korean culture, did not reveal exactly when she visited the shrine. Her Facebook post was accompanied by two photos of shrine buildings.

The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun cited a shrine official as saying it could not confirm whether she had entered the main shrine.

According to Abe’s Facebook page, she also visited the shrine in May and August of this year.