By YUKI MINAMI/ Staff Writer
April 21, 2024 at 19:02 JST
“Masakaki” ritual offerings are seen in front of the main hall of Yasukuni Shrine on April 21. (Yuki Minami)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a ritual spring offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, viewed by Chinese and Koreans as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism, but didn’t visit himself to avoid creating a diplomatic row.
He donated “masakaki” evergreen twigs to the shrine in the capital’s Chiyoda Ward in his capacity as prime minister on April 21, the first day of its spring festival.
Since he became prime minister in 2021, Kishida has offered masakaki to the shrine during spring and autumn festivals but has refrained from visiting the facility.
Lower House Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga and Upper House President Hidehisa Otsuji also offered masakaki.
Yoshitaka Shindo, minister in charge of economic revitalization, visited the shrine on April 21.
“I paid a visit out of reverence and respect for the souls of those who worked for the country with all their might in the past,” he said.
Kishida also sent a representative to make a “tamagushi-ryo” cash offering out of his own pocket as presdent of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, in 2022 and again last year.
Yasukuni is highly controversial in part because it memorializes 14 Class-A war criminals, such as wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and others who were executed after the war.
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