Members of right-wing groups hold Japanese flags and placards at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday. [Reuters]
Members of right-wing groups hold Japanese flags and placards at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday. [Reuters]

South Korea's government strongly criticized senior Japanese officials for offering tributes or paying visits to Yasukuni Shrine, calling the acts "anachronistic behavior that forgets history."

The Foreign Ministry issued a spokesperson's statement Saturday saying it "cannot but deplore" the repeated offerings and visits by senior Japanese officials to Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies Japan's past wars of aggression and enshrines war criminals.

The ministry said it "strongly urges Japan's responsible leaders to face history squarely and demonstrate through their actions humble reflection and genuine remorse over the past," adding that doing so is "an important foundation for building a future-oriented South Korea-Japan relationship based on mutual trust."

On Saturday — South Korea's Liberation Day and Japan's day of defeat in World War II — Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae offered a monetary tribute to Yasukuni Shrine in her capacity as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Four sitting cabinet ministers also visited the shrine: Defense Minister Koizumi Shin-jiro, Minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories Kikawada Hitoshi, Minister for Economic Security Onoda Kimi and Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Kiuchi Minoru.

The visits extended to the political sphere. Lawmakers belonging to a cross-party parliamentary group dedicated to visiting Yasukuni Shrine, members of the LDP's conservative caucus, Kamiya Sohei — leader of the right-wing Sanseito party — and Hyakuta Naoki, leader of the Japan Conservative Party, also visited the shrine.


ehkim@heraldcorp.com