Photo/Illutration The head office of Kyodo News (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Kyodo News corrected an article that had erroneously said Akiko Ikuina, a parliamentary vice foreign minister, visited war-related Yasukuni Shrine in 2022, a report that led in part to a diplomatic rift.

The news agency on Nov. 25 acknowledged that the original story “could have affected diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea.”

Seoul on Nov. 24 boycotted a memorial for workers who died at gold mines on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture after South Korean media reported that Ikuina, who represented the government at the ceremony, had visited the shrine.

During World War II, many laborers from the Korean Peninsula worked at the mines, which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in July.

Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates 14 Class-A war criminals along with the nation’s war dead, is viewed by South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism.

In a statement, Naoto Takahashi, managing editor at Kyodo News, said, “We deeply apologize for causing inconvenience not only to Ikuina but also to local officials, such as those in Niigata Prefecture, Sado city and the memorial’s organizing committee, as well as our readers.”

He said the news agency will thoroughly implement measures to prevent a recurrence, including reviewing its reporting methods.

In the corrected article distributed to subscribers on Nov. 25, Kyodo News said its journalists covering lawmakers at the shrine on Aug. 15, 2022, had reported spotting Ikuina there.

The original article was published without interviewing Ikuina, a Liberal Democratic Party Upper House member who was elected to the chamber the previous month, the agency said.

Kyodo News examined the reporting process after Ikuina told media organizations on Nov. 24 that she did not visit the shrine on that day.

The agency concluded that its reporters had mistaken someone for her.

In addition to Ikuina herself denying making the trip, LDP lawmakers who visited the shrine on that day said she was not there, the agency said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Nov. 26 that the government plans to seek explanations from Kyodo News about the background to the erroneous article.

“We understand that the inaccurate reporting caused confusion about the memorial ceremony,” Hayashi told a news conference. “It is extremely regrettable.”

Ikuina has told The Asahi Shimbun that she did not visit the shrine on that date.

The Foreign Ministry also said Nov. 24 it confirmed that Ikuina has not visited the shrine since she was elected to the Upper House.

A senior Foreign Ministry official said the incident will not have a significant impact on overall bilateral relations now that Seoul knows it was a misunderstanding.

South Korea on Nov. 25 held a separate memorial for Korean laborers in Sado.

About 30 people attended, including Park Cheol-hee, the South Korean ambassador to Japan, and nine bereaved family members of former laborers.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said Nov. 25 it was aware of the corrected article by Kyodo News.

But the ministry indicated that the issue surrounding Yasukuni Shrine was not the only reason for South Korea’s decision not to attend the memorial.

It said the content of a Japanese speech to be read at the memorial was among the “important considerations” behind the decision.

The ministry said the speech failed to live up to an agreement reached by the two countries when the gold mines were listed as a World Cultural Heritage site.

South Korea had opposed the inscription, saying Koreans were engaged in forced labor at the mines. It agreed to the registration after Japan promised to organize a memorial for all workers, including Korean laborers.

(This article was written by Ryo Yamagishi, Nen Satomi and Akihiko Kaise in Seoul.)

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