The new Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, sent the offering of the “masakaki” tree to the Yasukuni Shrine on the occasion of the shrine's biannual festival which is held in the spring and fall, the Shrine said. AFP a spokesperson for the place.
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The place is highly controversial as it is considered by many to be a symbol of Japan's militaristic past. The shrine, located in central Tokyo, honors the memory of nearly 2.5 million soldiers who died in conflicts led by Japan from the late 19th century until 1945. But it also honors the memory of senior Japanese officers and politicians convicted of war crimes by the Allies after World War II. Also the respect regularly shown to this sanctuary by contemporary Japanese politicians has the effect of irritating Beijing and Seoul, China and the Korean peninsula having been under the yoke of Tokyo during the first half of the twentieth century.
Two of the Kishida government ministers, Minister of Health and Labor Shigeyuki Goto, and Kenji Wakamiya, Minister responsible for the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, also donated sacred trees.
Earlier this year, three prominent ministers paid homage to the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
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Kishida's predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, made a pilgrimage to the shrine on Sunday, a spokeswoman said, and Japanese television channel NHK aired footage of his visit.
Mr Suga had avoided visiting the shrine after 2012, when he became the spokesperson for the Abe government, and only sent ritual offerings when he became prime minister in 2020.
Shinzo Abe is the last Japanese Prime Minister to visit Yasukuni in person while in office, in 2013. His visit outraged China and South Korea and was also sharply criticized by the United States. , yet the great ally of Japan.
Mr. Kishida, who became Prime Minister of Japan on October 4, does not plan to visit the shrine during the two-day festival that takes place there from Monday, Kyodo News reported, citing anonymous sources in his entourage.
