Politics PM Kishida sends offering to Yasukuni

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday sent a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, seen by some as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, as the nation marked the 78th anniversary of the end of World War II, a ruling lawmaker said. Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, meanwhile, visited the Shinto shrine, marking the fourth consecutive year that a Cabinet member has offered prayers at Yasukuni on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in the war. Kishida sent the "masakaki" offering to the shrine, a source of diplomatic tension with China and South Korea. The prime minister, who heads a dovish faction within the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is likely to eschew an in-person visit as he has done previously.

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Lower House Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga and Upper House President Hidehisa Otsuji also offered masakaki. Yoshitaka Shindo, minister in charge of economic revitalization, visited the shrine on April 21. "I paid a visit out of reverence and respect for the souls of those who worked for the country with all their might in the past," he said.

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