Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae. [Getty Images]
Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae. [Getty Images]

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae offered a monetary tribute to Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday — Korea's Liberation Day — rather than visiting in person, doing so in her capacity as Liberal Democratic Party leader. Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjiro and one other cabinet minister visited the shrine on Japan's defeat anniversary, marking the seventh consecutive year that a sitting Japanese cabinet member has done so. Senior LDP figures also made an unusually large group visit to the shrine.

According to Kyodo News and other Japanese media, Takaichi paid for a "tamagushi," a ritual offering, out of her own pocket at Yasukuni Shrine Saturday morning. She made the offering in her role as LDP leader. Takaichi had visited Yasukuni every Aug. 15, Japan's defeat anniversary, in previous years.

Facing her first defeat anniversary as prime minister, she was widely seen as having held back from a personal visit out of consideration for opposition from South Korea, China and other countries. Takaichi was scheduled to visit a Tokyo metropolitan war cemetery to lay flowers Saturday morning.

Yasukuni Shrine commemorates approximately 2,466,000 people who died in civil conflicts surrounding the Meiji Restoration and in the many wars waged by imperial Japan. Neighboring countries have long objected to the shrine, particularly because it also enshrines Class-A war criminals from the Pacific War, including former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, who was executed following the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Defense Minister Koizumi paid an unannounced visit to Yasukuni Shrine at around 7 a.m. Saturday. It was the first time a sitting defense minister had visited the shrine on Japan's defeat anniversary since Kihara Minoru held the post in 2024.

Kikawada Hitoshi, minister in charge of Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs, also visited Yasukuni Shrine Saturday morning and offered a monetary tribute.

LDP Secretary-General Suzuki Shunichi, General Council Chairwoman Arimura Haruko and Election Strategy Committee Chairman Nishimura Yasutoshi also visited Yasukuni as a group Saturday morning, following Koizumi. Senior LDP figures making a collective visit to Yasukuni on the defeat anniversary is considered highly unusual.

Lawmakers belonging to the cross-party parliamentary group "Assembly Members Who All Visit Yasukuni Shrine Together" and the LDP's "Conservative Unity Group" were also set to visit the shrine Saturday.

Meanwhile, official ceremonies marking Liberation Day were held in central Seoul on Saturday. To mark the 81st anniversary of Liberation Day, the Seoul Metropolitan Government held a bell-ringing ceremony at Bosingak Pavilion in Jongno-gu at 11:30 a.m., under the theme "The Sound of Liberation, Awakening the Future." The event featured 33 commemorative strikes of the bell — a number symbolizing the spirit of independence — along with three rounds of the "manse" independence cheer.


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