China slams Japan PM Takaichi's offering to Yasukuni shrine

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a monetary offering to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Oct 19, the final day of the shrine's three-day autumn festival, The Straits Times reported. She also sent a Masakaki ritual offering of evergreen twigs on Oct 17, the first day of the festival.

The move drew immediate condemnation from China, with Beijing's embassy in Tokyo accusing political figures who pay homage at Yasukuni of trying to 'whitewash war crimes' and speed up remilitarisation, according to the South China Morning Post. The offering threatens to further strain relations between the two neighbours.

The prime minister was expected to forgo a personal visit to the shrine during the autumn festival, which ran from Oct 17 to Oct 19, The Straits Times said. However, several other Japanese officials and lawmakers visited Yasukuni on the same days. Land minister Tatsunori Ibayashi and ruling party election chief Yasutoshi Nishimura visited the shrine, which honours convicted war criminals alongside millions of war dead. Economic and fiscal policy minister Minoru Kiuchi and policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi visited on Oct 17, according to The Straits Times and Japan's Kyodo News.

A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers also visited Yasukuni, as is customary during seasonal festivals and on the Aug 15 anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat.

Visits by Japanese leaders to Yasukuni have long drawn harsh criticism from China and South Korea, both of which suffered under Japan's wartime aggression. Japan occupied a wide area of China by the end of World War II, and South Korea was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945. Sino-Japanese ties have remained soured following Takaichi's comments in 2025 suggesting that an attack on Taiwan could prompt a response by Japan's Self-Defense Forces in support of the United States. Beijing regards self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province to be unified with China, by force if necessary.