Japan's Takaichi offers ritual gift to Yasukuni Shrine, holds off on visit

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae offered a ritual gift to Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday, Kyodo News and NHK reported.

Takaichi made the offering — a sacred "masakaki" tree branch — in her official capacity as prime minister, with the dedication bearing the title "Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae," to mark the shrine's autumn festival, which began that day.

However, Kyodo News said Takaichi plans to refrain from visiting the shrine in person during the autumn festival period, which runs through Monday.

Before taking office as Liberal Democratic Party leader last October, Takaichi had visited Yasukuni Shrine during the spring and autumn festivals as well as on Aug. 15 — Liberation Day in South Korea and the anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat. Since becoming prime minister, she has not visited the shrine during the festival periods.

On Aug. 15 this year, she offered a "tamagushiryo" — a monetary contribution for a ritual branch — out of her own pocket in her capacity as LDP leader. Instead of visiting in person, she performed a "yohai," a form of worship in which one bows toward the shrine from a distance.

Yasukuni Shrine enshrines the spirits of approximately 2,466,000 people who died in civil conflicts in Japan around the time of the Meiji Restoration and in the many wars waged by imperial Japan.

Nearly 90 percent of those enshrined — about 2,133,000 — are connected to the Pacific War. The shrine also includes Class-A war criminals convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, known as the Tokyo Trials, among them former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, who was executed following the tribunal.