TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio made a ritual offering of a “masakaki” tree stand on Friday for the spring festival at the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

He has no plans to visit the Shinto shrine during the two-day festival through Saturday, informed sources said.

Among his cabinet ministers, economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visited the shrine on Friday, while health minister Katsunobu Kato sent a masakaki offering the same day.

The shrine honors Class-A World War II criminals along with the war dead and is regarded as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism by China and South Korea.

Since taking office as prime minster in October 2021, Kishida has made masakaki offerings for the shrine’s spring and autumn festivals.

Last year, he made a “tamagushi” ritual offering to the shrine on the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the war.

“I assume that the prime minister made the offering in his private capacity. It’s not a matter for the government to comment on,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference.

No sitting prime minister has paid a visit to the shrine since December 2013, when the late Shinzo Abe did so. No such visit has since taken place out of diplomatic consideration for China and South Korea.

Also on Friday, a group of about 90 ruling and opposition party lawmakers paid a visit to the shrine. They include Hiroshi Moriyama, the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee chairman, Masaki Ogushi, state minister for digital transformation, and Yoshiaki Wada, parliamentary vice minister at the Cabinet Office.