Japan internal minister Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine

October 18, 2019

Tokyo--Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Friday, the second day of the war-related Shinto shrine's four-day autumn festival.

Takaichi was the second incumbent cabinet minister to visit the shrine during the festival, following minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs Seiichi Eto, who visited it on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after the visit, Takaichi said she "expressed gratitude with respect to the spirits of the war dead." With regard to a backlash from neighboring countries, Takaichi said that "it should not become a diplomatic issue."

Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Class-A World War II criminals along with the war dead, is considered a symbol of Japan's past militarism, particularly in China and South Korea.

Takaichi said she signed the register book of the shrine as internal affairs and communications minister and offered a "tamagushi" ritual offering out of her own pocket.

Besides Takaichi, 98 members of a suprapartisan lawmaker group led by Hidehisa Otsuji, former vice president of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament, also visited the shrine on Friday.

The visitors included Kanji Kato, state minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and Kazuchika Iwata, parliamentary vice minister of defense, as well as lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and NHK kara Kokumin wo Mamoru To (party to protect the people from Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK).

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to skip visiting the shrine, Otsuji said at a press conference, "I think the war dead want the government to put priority on recovery efforts in the aftermath of the typhoon," referring to deadly Typhoon Hagibis, which lashed central and eastern Japan last weekend. Jiji Press