Takaichi offers tribute to Yasukuni Shrine... “I think we will postpone visiting the shrine” (comprehensive)

The Minister of Economy and Finance visits the shrine in person... The House of Councilors, the Chairman of the House of Representatives, etc. offer tributes.

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Do-yeon = Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi presented an offering at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on the 17th.

According to Kyodo News and NHK, Prime Minister Takaichi offered an offering called 'Masakaki' in the name of 'Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi' in celebration of the Yasukuni Shrine's fall festival, which began on this day.

Kyodo News, citing an official from the Prime Minister's side, reported that Prime Minister Takaichi plans to postpone his visit to Yasukuni Shrine during the fall festival, which will last for three days until the 19th.

Kyodo interpreted this as the purpose of avoiding diplomatic problems with Korea and China due to visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Before Prime Minister Takaichi took office as president of the Liberal Democratic Party in October last year, he visited Yasukuni Shrine during the spring and fall annual festivals and on August 15, Korea's Liberation Day and the day of Japan's defeat in the war.

However, after taking office as the president of the Liberal Democratic Party in October last year, he did not visit the shrine during the fall festival in the same month and during the spring festival this year after his inauguration as prime minister.

On August 15, in his capacity as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, he donated the price of an offering called 'Tamagu Shiryo' at his own expense and made a 'bow' to the shrine from afar instead of paying his respects in person.

Among the cabinet members that day, Minister of Economy and Finance Minoru Kiuchi visited Yasukuni. After visiting the shrine, he told reporters that he donated the 'Tamagu sample' at his own expense.

In addition, Kyodo News reported that House of Representatives Speaker Eisuke Mori (House of Representatives), House of Councilors Masakazu Sekiguchi (Senate) Speaker, and Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Kenichiro Ueno offered tributes.

On the 19th, the 'National Assembly Members' Group to Visit Yasukuni Shrine Together', a non-partisan alliance of lawmakers, is scheduled to visit.

Yasukuni Shrine commemorates the souls of over 2.466 million people who died in the civil war that took place in Japan before and after the Meiji Restoration and in the numerous wars waged by Japan.

Among them, about 2,133,000, or close to 90%, are related to the Pacific War, and in particular, Class A war criminals from the Pacific War, including former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who were executed according to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trial), are enshrined.