Around 70 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its annual autumn festival Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine.
Yasukuni Shrine, viewed by many as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism, has been a source of diplomatic friction with China and South Korea, both of which suffered at the hands of Japanese aggression before and during World War II. Along with millions of war dead, the Shinto shrine honors convicted war criminals.
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Seoul expressed “deep concern and disappointment†after the visit by the lawmakers.
The group included Yoshihiko Isozaki, senior vice industry minister, Katsunobu Kato, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s general council and LDP Diet affairs chief Hiroshi Moriyama.
Two other senior vice ministers and four parliamentary vice ministers of the Abe Cabinet were also among the attendees.
Abe, who is on a diplomatic trip to Europe, has refrained from visiting the shrine in central Tokyo since December 2013. That visit worsened Japan-China ties that had already been frayed over the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which Beijing also claims.
In a sign of thawing Sino-Japanese ties, Abe is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Beijing.
Source: ANNnewsCH
