TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida donated religious offerings on Friday to a Tokyo shrine that China and the Koreas consider a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism.
Kishida donated Shinto “masakaki” ornaments for Yasukuni Shrine’s biennial festival, as he has since becoming prime minister in October 2021. The donations are seen as a gesture toward conservative governing party lawmakers and voters.
Yasukuni honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism, and visits by lawmakers to the shrine as signs of their lack of remorse over Japan's wartime actions.
Japanese prime ministers have avoided going to the shrine while in office after a visit to Yasukuni by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013 enraged China and the Koreas. However, some Cabinet members and governing party lawmakers continue to visit.
Both China and South Korea criticized Kishida's donation on Friday.
“Our government expresses deep disappointment and regret that responsible members of Japan’s leadership once again paid tributes or visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies Japan’s past wars of aggression and enshrines war criminals,” South Korea's Foreign Ministry said. It urged them to “squarely face up to history and show with action their humble reflection and genuine remorse for the past.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called Yasukuni Shrine “the spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militarism for waging the war of aggression against other countries.”
“China urges Japan to completely draw a clear line with militarism and take practical actions to win the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community,” Wang said.
Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi visited Yasukuni on Friday and said she paid respects and expressed her appreciation to those who sacrificed their lives in the war. Another Cabinet member, Health and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato, donated religious offerings to the shrine.
More than 80 conservative lawmakers led by Ichiro Aisawa, a senior member of Kishida’s governing party, visited the shrine together. The group included nearly a dozen deputy ministers and aides in Kishida’s Cabinet.
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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
