Japan Minister Kiuchi Visits Yasukuni Shrine

Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press)--Japanese economic growth strategy minister Minoru Kiuchi visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Wednesday, during the Shinto shrine's three-day spring festival that started the previous day.

It is the first time that a member of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's cabinet was confirmed to have visited Yasukuni Shrine during its spring and autumn festivals.

Kiuchi signed a visitor's book as a minister and offered a "tamagushi" sacred tree branch at his own expense.

"I offered sincere gratitude with a sense of reverence for the holy spirits of fallen soldiers," he told reporters after the visit.

Yasukuni Shrine is regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism by other Asian nations such as China and South Korea because it enshrines Class-A World War II criminals along with the war dead.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]