Abe offered “masakaki” tree stands bearing his name and title for the war-related Shinto shrine’s autumn festival.
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Xinhua’s English article also mentioned that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine on Saturday, and remarked that even though he did not visit the shrine, his offering “is still deemed provocative” at a time when a trilateral summit with China and South Korea is being arranged for next month.
South Korea condemned the Japanese move as nothing but an act to beautify Japan’s colonial rule and wartime aggression.
The Foreign Ministry also criticized Justice Minister Mitsuhide Iwaki and Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
South Korea’s foreign ministry slammed the visits and the ritual offerings.
But local media said, in light of an upcoming summit seeking to boost ties between Japan, China and South Korea, that Abe would not visit the controversial site – something he and other Japanese leaders have done regularly in past years.
Both neighbors have complained that Japan has showed a lack of remorse over its wartime hostility.
Nationalists, including many Japanese MPs, maintain that the shrine is merely a place to remember millions of fallen soldiers who died for the state. Abe is preparing to meet with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts for their first trilateral talks since 2012, which are scheduled for November 1. That sparked anger in Asia and a diplomatic slap on the wrist from the United States, which said it was “disappointed”.
In 2013, Abe paid his respects at the shrine.
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Scores of conservative lawmakers, possibly including cabinet ministers, are expected to visit Yasukuni to mark the autumn festival on Tuesday.
