The contentious shrine honours millions of the country’s dead soldiers, including senior military and political figures who were convicted of war crimes
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday but has no plans to visit it to avoid tensions ahead of a three-way meeting with China and South Korea, officials and local media said.
Abe sent a sacred “masakaki” tree bearing his name to the shrine as it started a three-day spring festival, a shrine spokeswoman said.
Kyodo News and other reports said Abe would not visit the shrine during the festival to avoid creating tension as he plans to host a trilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in early May.
The conservative premier, who has been criticised for what some see as a revisionist attitude to Japan’s wartime record, has sent ritual offerings to mark the shrine’s key events, including its commemoration of the end of the second world war.
