Takaichi sends offering to Yasukuni Shrine for autumn rite

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi placed a symbolic offering at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday, kicking off the shrine's three-day autumn festival. The shrine, known for commemorating Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals and millions of war dead, has been a point of contention with Japan's neighbors China and South Korea.

Takaichi, a conservative, had previously visited the shrine during her tenure as a minister but refrained from doing so since becoming prime minister in October 2021. This year, during the war-end anniversary, she paid her respects to the shrine by bowing, clapping, and then bowing again, apparently in a gesture of Shinto worship from a distance.

The last sitting Japanese prime minister to visit Yasukuni was Shinzo Abe in December 2013. The shrine, established in 1869, enshrined 14 Class-A war criminals, including former Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo, in 1978. Takaichi's decision to visit the shrine at the start of the festival comes amid strained relations with China over her comments about Taiwan, and relatively stable ties with South Korea.