Economic growth strategy minister Minoru Kiuchi visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Wednesday, during the Shinto shrine¡¯s three-day spring festival that started the previous day.
It is the first time there has been confirmation that a member of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi¡¯s Cabinet visited Yasukuni Shrine.
Kiuchi signed a visitor¡¯s book as a minister and offered a?tamagushi?sacred tree branch at his own expense.
¡°I offered sincere gratitude with a sense of reverence for the holy spirits of fallen soldiers,¡± he told reporters after the visit.
Yasukuni Shrine is regarded as a symbol of Â鶹´«Ã½ past militarism by other Asian nations such as China and South Korea because it enshrines Class-A World War II criminals along with the war dead.
Also on Wednesday, Haruko Arimura, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party¡¯s General Council, and LDP policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi visited the shrine. Arimura made a tamagushi offering on behalf of Takaichi in her capacity as LDP president.
¡°As time has passed since the end of the war and global conflicts continue, prayers for peace are important,¡± Arimura said to reporters.
Kobayashi said, ¡°I visited the shrine with feelings of gratitude toward our forebears.¡±
A suprapartisan group of lawmakers promoting Yasukuni Shrine visits made a collective visit to the shrine on Wednesday. More than 120 lawmakers, including those from the LDP and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, participated.
¡°The foundation of Â鶹´«Ã½ stability and peace today rests on the many war dead and their spirits,¡± said Ichiro Aisawa, a House of Representatives lawmaker who heads the group, at a news conference.
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