Abe makes ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine

August 15, 2017

TOKYO- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a "tamagushi" ritual offering at his own expense to Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, the 72nd anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

But Abe, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, stopped short of visiting the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, which honors the war dead, including convicted war criminals, and is regarded by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Abe's ritual offering was made through Masahiko Shibayama, special aide to the LDP president.

Abe made the ritual offering without visiting the shrine on the sensitive war-end anniversary for the fifth straight year, apparently showing consideration for China and South Korea.

Shibayama told reporters at the shrine, "Under instructions from our president, I paid tribute to the spirits of the people who sacrificed themselves in the war and renewed my wish for lasting peace."

Meanwhile, about 60 members of a suprapartisan group of lawmakers paid a visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday.

From Abe's cabinet, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahisa Sato visited the war-related shrine.

Koichi Hagiuda, executive acting secretary-general of the LDP, and Shinjiro Koizumi, the party's chief deputy secretary-general, also visited the shrine separately, as did Tomomi Inada, who resigned last month as defense minister in the wake of a data cover-up scandal involving Ground Self-Defense Force peacekeeping troops in South Sudan.

Also on Tuesday, Abe laid flowers at Tokyo's Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for unidentified fallen troops and delivered a speech at a government-sponsored ceremony to mark the war-end anniversary.

Every year from 2013, multiple ministers from Abe's cabinet visited Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda told a press conference that she will not visit Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, saying that she will work hard as a cabinet minister without prioritizing her wish. Jiji Press