Takaichi, who skipped Yasukuni, silent when asked, “Did you bow from afar?”

【Financial News, Tokyo — Correspondent Seo Hye-jin】 Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi refrained from visiting Yasukuni Shrine in person for Japan’s Autumn Grand Festival, but continued to make offerings in the prime minister’s name. She declined to answer whether she had paid her respects remotely from outside the shrine. Ministers in Takaichi’s cabinet have also visited, and controversy is expected to continue as cross-party lawmakers are scheduled to make a group visit on the 19th.
On the 18th, Sankei Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun and The Nikkei reported that Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Minoru Kiuchi visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine on the previous day, when the Autumn Grand Festival began. After his visit, he told reporters, “I conveyed my condolences and respect to the spirits who sacrificed their precious lives for their homeland,” and said, “I renewed my resolve never to go to war again.” He also explained that he paid the tamagushi-ryo—a monetary offering made in place of a ritual offering—out of his own pocket.
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Kenichiro Ueno made an offering.
Prime Minister Takaichi also sent an offering that day in the name of “Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister.” However, she plans not to visit the shrine in person during the festival, which runs through the 19th. Sankei Shimbun reported that the aim was “to avoid diplomatic friction with South Korea and China.”
Whether the prime minister had paid her respects remotely also drew attention. The previous morning, Takaichi attended a memorial service for Self-Defense Forces members who died in the line of duty, held at the Ministry of Defense near Yasukuni Shrine. When reporters asked whether the prime minister had paid her respects remotely in the direction of the shrine, an aide close to her said, “We will refrain from answering.”
This is because Prime Minister Takaichi has previously paid her respects to Yasukuni Shrine without visiting in person, on August 15.
At the time, Takaichi attended the National Memorial Service for the War Dead and paid her respects remotely from the parking lot of Nippon Budokan by bowing twice and clapping twice toward the shrine, then bowing once. Through a senior Liberal Democratic Party official, she also paid the tamagushi-ryo out of her own pocket in her capacity as party president.
When she was a cabinet minister, Takaichi visited Yasukuni Shrine almost without fail during the spring and autumn festivals and on August 15, Japan’s day marking the end of the war. But she refrained from visiting in person starting in the autumn of last year, just before becoming prime minister. As she did this time, she sent only an offering for this spring’s festival. She has continued to avoid visiting in person while conveying her intention to pay tribute through offerings.
The last sitting prime minister to visit Yasukuni Shrine in person was then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in December 2013. Since then, former prime ministers Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba have also refrained from visiting in person while in office and made offerings for the festival.
Neighboring countries continued to express opposition despite this approach. The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed “deep disappointment and regret” the previous day over the prime minister’s offering and the ministers’ visits. It also urged responsible Japanese leaders to face history and demonstrate reflection and remorse through their actions.
In a statement the same day, the Chinese Embassy in Japan criticized the visits as “an affront to historical justice and a challenge to the postwar international order.” It said of the Takaichi administration, “It cannot conceal its intention to cover up its war guilt, distort historical facts and accelerate rearmament.”
On the 19th, the final day of the festival, cross-party lawmakers belonging to the “Association of Diet Members Who Visit Yasukuni Shrine Together” are scheduled to make a group visit.


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