By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-08-15 00:51:49 | Updated at 2026-08-15 01:34:21
1 hour ago
Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited the war-linked Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo on Aug 15, the 81st anniversary of the country’s defeat in World War II.
The Shinto shrine honours convicted war criminals along with the war dead and is viewed as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism by Asian neighbours.
Visits by Japanese prime ministers and lawmakers have drawn sharp rebukes from China and South Korea, which both suffered under Japan’s wartime aggression.
Hitoshi Kikawada, another member of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, also visited the shrine.
Kikawada serves as state minister in charge of issues related to the Northern Territories – islands at the centre of a territorial row with Russia. Tokyo maintains the former Soviet Union illegally seized the islands after the war.
Before taking office last October, Takaichi visited the shrine during its seasonal festivals and on the Aug 15 war anniversary. But she has refrained from going to the shrine since becoming Prime Minister.
Japan has spent the decades since the end of the war committing itself to peace under its war-renouncing Constitution. In what it has described as an increasingly severe security environment, the country has been boosting its defence capabilities and spending.
Yasukuni enshrined 14 wartime leaders as deities in 1978, most of whom were convicted as Class-A war criminals. They include General Hideki Tojo, a wartime prime minister who was executed in 1948 for crimes against peace. KYODO NEWS
