Kishida’s war shrine offering angers China, South Korea
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made an offering to a controversial war shrine only weeks after becoming leader of the government, a move that angered both China and South Korea.
Mr Kishida donated religious ornaments to mark the Yasukuni Shrine’s autumn festival, the Associated Press reported. Yoshihide Suga, whose resignation paved the way for Mr Kishida to become prime minister on Oct 4, visited the shrine on Sunday, the AP said.
The Tokyo shrine honours millions of Japanese war dead, including 14 men convicted as Class A war criminals after World War II, and is generally viewed by Japan’s neighbours as a symbol of the country’s past militarism. Japan occupied South Korea for 35 years before its defeat in 1945, and its invasion of China in the run-up to the global conflict led to the deaths of millions of Chinese soldiers and civilians.
Mr Kishida made a “bad start” with the offering, which “demonstrated again the rise of right-wing conservative forces in Tokyo”, China’s Global Times wrote on Sunday. China lodged solemn representations with Japan over the matter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said yesterday at a briefing in Beijing.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry expressed “deep disappointment and regret” over the offering.
No sitting Japanese prime minister has visited the shrine since Shinzo Abe in 2013. That visit scarred Japan’s relations with China and South Korea for several years.