Japanese prime minister sends Yasukuni offering but avoids controversial shrine visit

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to a war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's imperialistic past Saturday to mark the country's 1945 surrender in World War II.

Takaichi sent the offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine in her capacity as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) without visiting the shrine in person.

Before taking office, Takaichi had visited the shrine on Aug. 15 every year, but she is believed to have refrained from doing so as prime minister in consideration of strong protests that such a visit would spark from neighboring countries Korea and China.

The shrine honors Japan's war dead, including 14 class A war criminals, and neighboring countries view shrine visits by Japanese leaders as an attempt to beautify the country's militaristic past.

But Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs Hitoshi Kikawada paid a visit to the shrine, while a group of LDP leaders also visited the shrine en masse.

Yonhap