Japanese minister becomes first in two years to visit Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine
- Cabinet member Seiichi Eto pays his respects to the nation’s war dead at site seen abroad as symbol of Japan’s past militarism
- The response was swift from neighbouring South Korea, which called on Tokyo to ‘show humble reflection’ on the past
Seiichi Eto was the first cabinet minister to visit Yasukuni since April 2017. He oversees issues related to Okinawa prefecture and the four southernmost Kuril Islands, which were seized by Russia in the closing days of World War Two but are claimed by Tokyo.
The next day, a cross-party group of about 100 Japanese lawmakers paid homage, more than during the shrine’s recent festivals last autumn and this spring. The group included lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, and the Japan Innovation Party.
Eto is serving in his first cabinet position and is a member of the ultranationalist Nippon Kaigi organisation, whose aims are to revise the “national consciousness” surrounding the prosecution of Japan’s war criminals and to change the nation’s pacifist constitution implemented after the war. The group also promotes “patriotic education”.
