Editorial: Senior gov't officials' Yasukuni visits lack insight, damage foreign relations

Japanese defense officials, including Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and other Cabinet ministers, paid visits to Yasukuni Jinja shrine on August 15, 2025. This marks the second such visit by a sitting defense minister, following Minoru Kihara in 2024. Senior LDP officials, such as Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki, also participated in the visits.

Yasukuni shrine, a central institution of State Shinto that supported Japan's militarism before and during World War II, enshrined Class-A war criminals convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Neighboring countries, particularly China and South Korea, are highly sensitive to visits by senior Japanese government officials to the shrine, as they perceive it as a lack of remorse and a potential boost for Japan's neo-militarism.

China has been warning Asian nations that Japan's defense strengthening amounts to neo-militarism, and such shrine visits risk providing Beijing with additional grounds for criticism. The visits also undermine efforts to improve bilateral relations with South Korea. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who had previously visited the shrine, did not mention remorse over the war during a government-sponsored memorial ceremony in Tokyo on the same day.