Takaichi and Other Former Ministers Visit Yasukuni Shrine
Ishiba Makes Monetary Offering Instead of Paying Respects
Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, visited the Yasukuni Shrine on August 15, where Class-A war criminals from World War II are enshrined. Instead of visiting the shrine, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made a monetary offering for a ritual offering.
According to Kyodo News and NHK, Minister Koizumi paid his respects at the Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on the morning of August 15.
Koizumi, who has been mentioned as a leading candidate for prime minister, also visited the Yasukuni Shrine on last year's anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II, although he was not serving as a cabinet minister at that time. He previously visited the shrine in 2020 and 2021 while serving as Minister of the Environment. This is the first time since the inauguration of the Ishiba Cabinet in October last year that a sitting cabinet minister has visited the Yasukuni Shrine. With Koizumi's visit this year, a sitting cabinet minister has visited the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's defeat for six consecutive years since 2020.
Other prominent candidates for prime minister, including right-wing politician Sanae Takaichi, former Minister for Economic Security, Takayuki Kobayashi, former Minister for Economic Security, and Koichi Hagiuda, former Policy Research Council Chair, also visited the shrine on the same day. Lawmakers belonging to the nonpartisan parliamentary group "Association of Lawmakers for Visiting Yasukuni Shrine Together" paid their respects as a group.
Prime Minister Ishiba did not visit the shrine but made a monetary offering for a ritual offering. Since taking office, like former Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida and Yoshihide Suga, he has refrained from visiting the Yasukuni Shrine and has instead offered ritual offerings or monetary contributions. The last time a sitting prime minister visited the Yasukuni Shrine was in 2013, when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did so.
The Yasukuni Shrine commemorates the souls of approximately 2,466,000 people who died in civil wars around the time of the Meiji Restoration and in numerous wars waged by Imperial Japan. Of these, nearly 90%, or about 2,133,000, are associated with the Pacific War. Among those enshrined are Class-A war criminals from the Pacific War, including former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who were executed following the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Trials).
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