Korea blasts Kishida's sending of offering to Yasukuni Shrine

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Korea blasts Kishida's sending of offering to Yasukuni Shrine

Published: 21 Apr. 2023, 16:24

Japanese lawmakers, including Ichiro Aisawa of the Liberal Democratic Party, second from left, pay tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Friday on the occasion of a two-day spring festival. [YONHAP]

The Foreign Ministry protested Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ritual offering to Yasukuni war shrine on Friday.

“The government expresses deep disappointment and regret that Japan's responsible leaders have once again offered tribute or paid pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies Japan's past war of aggression and enshrines war criminals,” the ministry said in its statement issued after Kishida sent a ritual offering to the shrine to mark a two-day spring festival.

“The Korean government urges responsible figures in Japan to face its history and show humble introspection and true remorse for the past with its action.”

A number of Japanese leaders visited the shrine, including Sanae Takaichi, the economic security minister, and members of the Liberal Democratic Party, also on the occasion of the festival.

The shrine honors 1,068 war criminals, 14 of whom were Class A.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine, left, shown in this photo taken at the shrine on Friday. [YONHAP]

Visits to the shrine have been a regular source of dispute between Japan and its neighbors Korea and China.

Kishida, inaugurated in October 2021, has sent ritual offerings to the shrine every spring and autumn festival, but has stayed away from the shrine himself.

Ties between Korea and Japan, strained for years over historical disputes on forced labor that grew into trade and security spats, have warmed since March, when the Korean government proposed a solution to compensate the Korean victims of Japanese wartime forced labor with funds from Korean companies. Tokyo followed up with an invitation to President Yoon Suk Yeol for a summit meeting in Tokyo.

Yoon met with Kishida in the capital city last month, marking the first visit by a Korean president to Japan for a summit in 12 years. Following the summit, Japan formally ended its export restrictions on Korea and Korea announced its full return to the military intelligence sharing pact with Japan. Yoon has been invited to the G7 summit in Hiroshima next month.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]