Japan Minister Kiuchi Visits Yasukuni Shrine

Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press)–Japanese 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 that a member of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet was confirmed to have visited Yasukuni Shrine during its spring and autumn festivals. 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 Japan’s 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 Japan’s stability and peace today rests on the many war dead and their spirits,” Ichiro Aisawa, a House of Representatives lawmaker who heads the group, said at a press conference. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]