Prime Minister Candidate Koizumi Visits Yasukuni Shrine... Seo Kyungdeok Calls It "An Act of Rudeness"

On the 15th, Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, leaving after paying respects at Yasukuni Shrine. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and a leading candidate for the next prime minister, paid respects at Yasukuni Shrine on the 15th. Professor Seo Kyungdeok of Sungshin Women's University strongly criticized this act, calling it "an act of rudeness."

Professor Seo emphasized, "It is truly an act of rudeness for a candidate for Japan's next prime minister to personally visit and pay respects at such a place," and added, "For the peace and prosperity of Northeast Asia going forward, Japanese politicians must immediately stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine and develop a proper understanding of history."

With Minister Koizumi's visit on this day, it marks the sixth consecutive year since 2020 that a sitting cabinet minister has visited Yasukuni Shrine on Japan's defeat anniversary. According to Kyodo News, "Lawmakers belonging to the nonpartisan parliamentary group 'Association of Lawmakers for Visiting Yasukuni Shrine Together' are also scheduled to visit," and reported that "Prime Minister Ishiba is expected not to visit the shrine but to offer a monetary offering instead."

Yasukuni Shrine view. Photo by Seokyungdeok Professor

Yasukuni Shrine is a facility that commemorates the spirits of approximately 2,466,000 people who died in civil wars around the time of the Meiji Restoration and in numerous wars initiated by Imperial Japan. Notably, 14 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, are also enshrined there.