Japan’s new PM Fumio Kishida angers China, South Korea with offering to controversial Yasukuni Shrine

The new prime minister sent a tree and does not plan to visit the Shinto shrine over its autumn festival, unlike his predecessor Yoshihide Suga
The shrine honours Japan’s war dead and is seen by China and South Korea as a symbol of Tokyo’s past militarism

Japan

Kyodo

Published: 10:25am, 17 Oct 2021

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo – a move that angered both China and South Korea, which view it as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.

The “masakaki” tree offering was made under his name as prime minister to celebrate the shrine’s twice-yearly festival held in the spring and autumn.

Kishida, who became Japan’s prime minister on October 4, does not plan to visit the shrine during the two-day autumn festival that runs through Monday, according to people close to him.

But on Sunday his predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, visited Yasukuni, which honours convicted war criminals along with about 2.5 million war dead.

“I came here as a former prime minister. I expressed my reverence to the spirits who gave their precious lives for the country,” Suga told reporters. He had not visited the shrine while he was prime minister.

Former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga visits Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday. Photo: Kyodo

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Seoul “expresses deep disappointment and regret” over Japanese leaders “once again sending offerings to and repeating their visits to” the shrine that “glorifies Japan’s war of aggression and enshrines war criminals”.

The statement, which took the form of a commentary by a ministry spokesperson, said the government “urges the leaders of Japan to squarely face history” and “demonstrate through action” their reflection on the past.

China’s Global Times, the Communist Party-backed tabloid, wrote on Sunday that Kishida made a “bad start” with the offering, which “demonstrated again the rise of right-wing conservative forces in Tokyo”.

The shrine’s precursor was built in 1869 and was renamed Yasukuni Shrine in 1879. It venerates those who died in wars fought by the Japanese government, worshipping their souls as deities.

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Former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s Yasukuni visit in December 2013, a year after the start of his second stint as prime minister, triggered a strong response from China and South Korea and also disappointed Japan’s key ally the United States.

Abe’s successor Suga did not visit the shrine during his one-year tenure from September last year, and sent ritual offerings for the festivals.

Suga also did not visit the shrine when he served as chief cabinet secretary for Abe for more than seven years.

The former prime minister did not elaborate on why he did so this time when he met the press, only saying: “It was something I decided by myself.”

People pray on the first day of autumn festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

Kishida’s tree offering to the shrine comes at a politically delicate time in Japan. Less than two weeks after taking office, Kishida, who also heads the Liberal Democratic Party, dissolved the lower house on Thursday for a general election at the end of this month.

Among his cabinet members, Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto and Kenji Wakamiya, minister in charge of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, also separately sent tree offerings to the shrine.

The festivals usually run for three days, but like last year’s festivals, the autumn event has been shortened to two days as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers who are supportive of visiting the shrine to pay respects to the country’s war dead have refrained from visiting together for the festivals since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and will do so once again this time.

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Hidehisa Otsuji, a former vice-president of the House of Councillors and who leads the group, and Toshiei Mizuochi, chairman of the steering committee of the upper house, both lawmakers of the ruling party, visited the shrine on Sunday on behalf of other members.

Most of the roughly 2.5 million people enshrined at Yasukuni were military servicemen and civilian employees of the Japanese military.

Yasukuni added wartime prime minister General Hideki Tojo and 13 other “Class-A” war criminals to the enshrined deities in 1978, stirring controversy in Japan and abroad.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: PM sends ritual offering to controversial Yasukuni shrine