Japan’s Defence Minister visits Yasukuni Shrine, drawing rebukes from China and South Korea

Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has visited a shrine paying tribute to the country’s war dead, drawing rebukes from China and South Korea.

Koizumi paid his respects at Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday, on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the second world war.

The Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, mostly Japanese, including convicted war criminals involved in Imperial Japan’s invasion and occupation of parts of Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.

Japan’s neighbours have long seen the site and the regular visits by senior politicians as symbolic of the country’s failure to atone for the atrocities its forces committed.

Koizumi, who has long been a regular visitor to Yasukuni, left the shrine without responding to reporters’ questions. He later said on Instagram that he visited to “offer his sincere condolences to the heroic spirits who sacrificed their precious lives for the nation”.

“Along with our vow to renounce war, I reaffirmed our determination to continue fulfilling our responsibility to uphold Japan’s postwar path as a peaceful nation,” he added.

There had been some speculation that Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, also a regular visitor before becoming prime minister in October, might attend the shrine, but she did not make the visit. Local media reported that Takaichi had sent an offering to the shrine, as previous prime ministers have done.

‘Anachronistic’

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the nation “strongly condemns” Takaichi’s offering and the minister’s visit to the shrine.

“We have lodged … strong protests with the Japanese side,” the ministry said.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret” over what it called the “anachronistic” actions of Japanese leaders who sent offerings or visited Yasukuni Shrine, and urged Japan’s leaders to face history and demonstrate through actions “humble reflection and sincere remorse” for the past.

Among the 2.5 million war dead commemorated at Yasukuni are 14 ⁠wartime leaders convicted of the most serious war crimes, along with at least 1,000 others found guilty by Allied tribunals after ⁠Japan’s 1945 defeat in World War II. Japanese officials have explained past visits ⁠as being in their personal capacity to honour those who died in the nation’s wars.

Japanese defence ministers have attended Yasukuni before, the last one being Minoru Kihara in 2024.