Three Cabinet ministers visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine on Thursday, the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II, while Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent a ritual offering.
The visits to the Tokyo shrine by the three ministers -- Sanae Takaichi, the economic security minister known for her hawkish views on security issues, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and economic revitalization minister Yoshitaka Shindo -- triggered protests from South Korea and China.
The move came a day after Kishida surprised many by announcing he would not be running in the ruling party's leadership race next month to take responsibility for a party slush funds scandal, ending his three-year term as prime minister.
Kishida, seen as a dovish moderate within the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, has refrained from visiting Yasukuni, which is viewed as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, in person since becoming premier in 2021, sending offerings instead on the war anniversary.
Yasukuni Shrine honors around 2.4 million of Japan's war dead, but it also enshrines wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by a post-World War II international tribunal.
It was the fifth consecutive year that one or more Cabinet members visited the shrine on the war anniversary.
Takaichi, considered a potential candidate in the LDP leadership race, visited Yasukuni in an apparent attempt to secure conservative support within the party.
Kihara became the first sitting defense minister to visit Yasukuni on the war anniversary since 2021, when Nobuo Kishi, the younger brother of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, paid tribute.
"I offered my condolences to those who lost their precious lives and expressed my respect to them," Kihara told reporters after visiting the shrine.
Other lawmakers visiting the shrine on Thursday include former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, both of whom may also join the race.
Around 70 cross-party lawmakers, including former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, also paid a visit on the anniversary.
Responding to Kishida's offering and the visits by other lawmakers to the shrine, South Korea summoned senior Japanese diplomats to lodge a protest with its foreign ministry expressing "deep disappointment and regret."
South Korea urges "Japan's responsible leaders to confront history and demonstrate genuine reflection and sincere remorse for the past through their actions," the ministry said, adding the actions serve as the foundation for a future-oriented development of bilateral ties.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it has made "solemn representations" to Japan over the ministers' visits and Kishida's ritual offering, calling Yasukuni "the spiritual tool and symbol" of past Japanese wars of aggression triggered by its militarism.
China urges Japan to "face up to and reflect on its history of aggression, be cautious in its words and deeds on historical issues" as well as "adhere to the path of peaceful development and win the trust of its Asian neighbors" with practical actions, the ministry said in a statement.
Japan invaded a vast swath of China before the end of World War II and ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
In an apparent attempt to avoid confrontation with the two neighbors, recent prime ministers have sent ritual offerings to the shrine for its biannual festivals in the spring and fall, as well as for the anniversary of the end of World War II on Aug. 15.
In 1978, Yasukuni added 14 Class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo, to the enshrined deities, stirring controversy at home and abroad. Tojo was executed by hanging for crimes against peace.
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