Takaichi sends Yasukuni offering as SK voices regret — SkimNews
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- Sanae Takaichi sent a "masakaki" offering to Yasukuni Shrine on Oct 17 at the opening of its three-day autumn festival; a source close to her said she is unlikely to visit the shrine in person during the festival.
- South Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a statement later on Oct 17 expressing "deep disappointment and regret" over the offering, despite recently improved Japan-Korea ties.
- Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Minoru Kiuchi visited the shrine in person on Oct 17, telling reporters he "renewed my pledge to renounce war"; House of Representatives Speaker Eisuke Mori and Senate President Masakazu Sekiguchi also sent offerings.
- Yasukuni Shrine enshrines 14 Class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (executed in 1948 and enshrined at the shrine in 1978), alongside millions of war dead, and is viewed by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's militarism.
- Takaichi has refrained from visiting Yasukuni since becoming prime minister on Oct 21, 2025; during the 2026 anniversary of Japan's 1945 surrender she bowed twice, clapped twice and bowed again toward the shrine from across the road during the government memorial ceremony.
- Japan-China ties remain strained after Takaichi said in November 2025 that an attack on Taiwan could prompt Japan's Self-Defence Forces to act alongside the United States; Japan-South Korea relations have improved since 2023 on wartime forced-labor progress and resumed reciprocal leader visits.
- Shinzo Abe, Takaichi's political mentor, was the last sitting Japanese prime minister to visit Yasukuni, in December 2013.
Why it matters: Takaichi opted for an offering rather than an in-person visit — a calibrated half-step that gives her conservative base the symbolism without the provocation of a prime-ministerial walk-in, which has not happened since Abe in December 2013. With her November 2025 Taiwan remarks already fraying ties with Beijing and Japan-South Korea reconciliation only recently restored after the wartime forced-labor settlement, Seoul's same-day "deep disappointment" keeps the diplomatic cost on the table without rupturing the recent thaw.
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