Yasukuni Shrine visited again by Japan's ruling party executive

Takayuki Kobayashi, a senior official of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), visited Yasukuni Shrine, a shrine associated with Japan’s wartime history, on Sunday.

Kobayashi’s visit came a day after several other senior party members visited the shrine, though Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not, to mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The politician, who serves as the LDP’s policy chief, did not join other party executives who visited the controversial shrine on Saturday (15 August) because he had to deal with the aftermath of heavy rain that hit parts of Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, which is his constituency.

Kobayashi’s visit on Sunday came after China and South Korea condemned visits by several members of Takaichi’s cabinet, including Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, as well as an offering made by the prime minister to the Shinto shrine.

Yasukuni Shrine honours the war dead as well as 14 convicted war criminals, while Asian countries such as China and Korea suffered the impact of Japanese aggression during the war.

“I visited as a family member,” Kobayashi told reporters. The LDP senior official’s grandfather died in the war.

“I renewed my determination to always work to protect the lives of the Japanese people,” he said.

Kobayashi is known for holding firm views on security issues. He previously served as economic security minister before taking up his current party executive position. Last year, he lost to Takaichi in the ruling party’s leadership election.

Takaichi did not visit the shrine on Saturday, which marked the first war anniversary since she became prime minister.

However, upon arriving at Nippon Budokan Hall, just a few hundred metres from Yasukuni Shrine, to attend the memorial ceremony, she bowed twice, clapped twice, and then bowed once towards the shrine, a form of respect in the Shinto tradition.

At the commemoration, a total of four cabinet ministers visited the shrine, along with three senior officials of the ruling party: Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki, General Council Chair Haruko Arimura, and Election Strategy Chair Yasutoshi Nishimura.

Yasukuni Shrine enshrined 14 wartime Japanese leaders as deities in 1978. Most of them were convicted as Class-A war criminals. They include General Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister who was executed in 1948 for crimes against peace.