The controversies surrounding

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...

are related to the choice of

Japanese people The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は，旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来，現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島（南西諸島）に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Jap ...

who are honoured at this nationally significant

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shrine and

war museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

in central

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Most of the venerated dead served the

Emperors of Japan An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( e ...

during wars from 1867 to 1951 but they also include civilians in service and government officials. It is the belief of Shinto that Yasukuni enshrines the actual

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

s of the dead, known as ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. The kami are honoured through

liturgical text A liturgical book, or service book, is a book published by the authority of a church body that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services. Christianity Roman Rite In the Roman Rite of the Catholic C ...

s and ritual incantations known as

Norito are liturgical texts or ritual incantations in Shinto, usually addressed to a given ''kami''. History The first written documentation of ''norito'' dates to 712 CE in the ''Kojiki'' and 720 CE in the '' Nihongi''. The Engishiki, a compilatio ...

. However, of the 2,466,532 people named in the shrine's ''Book of Souls'', 1,068 are war criminals who were convicted of war crimes, including 14 people who were tried by the

International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conven ...

, following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Because of the decision to honour individuals who were found responsible for serious breaches of humanitarian law,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

have called the Yasukuni Shrine an exemplar of the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

, revisionist and unapologetic approach Japan has taken towards its conduct during World War II. This has made visits to the shrine by

Japanese Prime Minister The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of State ...

cabinet members This is a list of the offices of heads of state, heads of government, cabinet, and legislature, of sovereign states. Date of Origin refers to most recent fundamental change in form of government, for example independence, change from absolute mon ...

politicians A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

extremely controversial. Former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

made annual personal (non-governmental) visits from 2001 to 2006. Since 1985, China, North Korea, and South Korea have protested such visits. The decision as to who is enshrined at Yasukuni is solely a religious activity due to the legal separation of

State Shinto was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as ...

and the Government of Japan. The Yasukuni priesthood have complete religious autonomy over deciding whom they bestow enshrinement. It is thought that enshrinement is permanent and irreversible by the current

Kannushi A , also called , is a person responsible for the maintenance of a as well as for leading worship of a given .* ''Kannushi'' (in Japanese), Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version The characters for are sometimes also re ...

Release of documents

On March 29, 2007, a book of documents was released by Japan's National Diet Library called "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine Problems" including declassified documents from the Occupational Government, the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry and Yasukuni Shrine. The documents purportedly draw a connection between the Japanese Government and the war criminal enshrinement. According to Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Lib ...

the government had no say in who is enshrined. In addition, Vice Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Tsuji Tetsuo told reporters that the former ministry was "in charge of keeping the personal records of soldiers and civilian employees of the military, and with presenting records as the need arose." "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine Problems" has been entered into the Library of Congress.

War criminals

The shrine enshrines and, according to

beliefs, provides a permanent residence for the spirits of those who have fought on behalf of the emperor, regardless of whether they died in combat. 1,068 of the enshrined

were

POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

s convicted of some level of war crime after World War II. Enshrinement typically carries absolution of earthly deeds. One of the criteria for enshrinement at Yasukuni is that a person be listed as having died of any cause while on duty in the war dead registry of the Japanese government. According to documents released on March 28, 2007, by the National Diet Library of Japan, Health and Welfare Ministry officials and Yasukuni representatives agreed during a meeting, on January 31, 1969, that Class-A war criminals judged at the

Tokyo Trial The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conven ...

were "able to be honored" as decided by the Shrine Priests and decided not to make this decision public. On October 17, 1978, these 14 Class A war criminals were enshrined as because they were on the war dead registry: *Death by hanging: *:

Hideki Tōjō Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...

Seishirō Itagaki was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and War Minister from 1938 to 1939. Itagaki was a main conspirator behind the Mukden Incident and held prestigious chief of ...

Heitarō Kimura was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. Biography Kimura was born in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo, but was raised in Hiroshima prefecture, which he considered to be h ...

Kenji Doihara was a Japanese army officer. As a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, he was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. As a leading intelligence officer, he played a key role to the Japanese machinations that le ...

Akira Mutō was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was convicted of Japanese war crimes, war crimes and was executed by hanging. Mutō was implicated in both the Nanjing Massacre and the Manila massacre. Biography Mutō was a ...

Kōki Hirota was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. Originally his name was . He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials. Early life Hirota was ...

Iwane Matsui was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937. He was convicted of war crimes and executed by the Allies for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre. Born in Nagoya, Matsui chose ...

(Matsui was only sentenced for Class B offenses) *Lifetime imprisonment: *:

Yoshijirō Umezu (January 4, 1882 – January 8, 1949) was a Japanese general in World War II and Chief of the Army General Staff during the final years of the conflict. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. Biography Early life a ...

Kuniaki Koiso was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Governor-General of Korea and Prime Minister of Japan from 1944 to 1945. After Japan's defeat in World War II, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. Early lif ...

Kiichirō Hiranuma Kiichirō, Kiichiro or Kiichirou (written: 麒一郎, 喜一郎 or 季一郎) is a masculine Japanese given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, poten ...

Toshio Shiratori was the Japanese ambassador to Italy from 1938 to 1940, adviser to the Japanese foreign minister in 1940, and one of the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine. Shiratori served as Director of Information Bureau under the Fo ...

*20-year imprisonment: *:

Shigenori Tōgō (10 December 1882 – 23 July 1950), was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Axis–Allied conflict during World War II. He also served as Minister of Colonial Affairs in 1941, and assume ...

*Died before a judicial decision was reached (owing to illness or disease): *:

Osami Nagano was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of the leaders of Japan's military during most of the Second World War. In April 1941, he became Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. In this capacity, he served as the n ...

, Yosuke Matsuoka All imprisoned war criminals either had their sentences commuted or were released by 1958. The enshrinement was revealed to the media on April 19, 1979, and a still-ongoing controversy started in 1985.

Yūshūkan War Museum

Yasukuni Shrine operates a war museum of the

history of Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inven ...

(the

Yūshūkan The ("Place to commune with a noble soul") is a Japanese military and war museum located within Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo. As a museum maintained by the shrine, which is dedicated to the souls of soldiers who died fighting on behalf of th ...

), which some observers have criticized as presenting a revisionist interpretation. A documentary-style propaganda video shown to museum visitors portrays Japan's conquest of

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

during the pre-World War II period as an effort to save the region from the imperial advances of colonial

Western powers The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

. Displays portray Japan as a victim of foreign influence, especially Western undermining of trade. The museum has no mention of any of the atrocities committed by the

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, including the

Nanking massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...

Izokukai

The political overtones of Yasukuni Shrine are attributed to two factors. One is the ideology of State Shinto, which regarded any wars waged in the name of the emperor as just and anyone who died fighting for the emperor as an . But another more immediate factor is the influence of various support organizations, especially the

Japan War-Bereaved Families Association The is an association in Japan that was set up to represent the interests of relatives of deceased war veterans in the Second World War. Its headquarters are in Kudanminami, Tokyo. The group supports visits to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to pay res ...

(), the largest organization representing the families of war dead from World War II. Yasukuni Shrine considers the Izokukai as its ''de facto'' lay organization. The Izokukai was formerly known as the , established in 1947. The original purpose of the Izoku Kōsei Renmei was "pursuing the end of warfare, establishing global peace and world prosperity and contributing to the welfare of the humanity." They sought "to provide relief and assistance to the families of those who died in the (Asia Pacific) war ". The organization provided assistance to the widows, orphans and aging parents of deceased veterans as well as lobbying the government on behalf of those families' interests. However, in 1953 the organization became a trust foundation and changed its name to Izokukai. The organization changed its main purpose to pursue "the establishment of a peaceful Japan, the cultivation of character, and the promotion of morality" and to "seek to praise ''eirei'', to promote the welfare of the families of the war dead, and to seek recognition and compensation for civilian auxiliary units." The change, which removed the mention of international pacifism and inserted a reference to ''eirei'', is regarded as giving a nationalist slant to the character of the organization. Chairmen of the organization have usually been members of the governing Liberal Democratic party and the organization is regarded as the informal pipeline between the LDP and the Shrine. In 1962,

Okinori Kaya was the Minister of Finance of Japan between 1941 and 1944. He advocated financing the Second World War and decreasing Chinese resistance by selling opiates to the Chinese. In 1945, he was captured by the Allies, tried by the International Milit ...

, a militant member of the LDP and a convicted class A war criminal, was appointed chairman.

Politicians' visits

Japanese politicians' visits to worship at Yasukuni Shrine have resulted in controversy. This issue first surfaced when

Emperor Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

refused to visit the shrine from 1978 until his death in 1989. According to a memorandum released in 2006 kept by

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...

Grand Steward The is the head department of the Imperial Household Agency of Japan. History The origins of the structure of the Imperial Household can be traced back to the reign of Emperor Monmu, with the organisation of the government structure in 701 AD ...

Tomohiko Tomita, Hirohito stated that the reason he stopped visiting the shrine was because of the decision to enshrine class A war criminals. Junichiro Koizumi (cropped) during arrival ceremony on South Lawn of White House

Junichiro Koizumi (cropped) during arrival ceremony on South Lawn of White House

Prime Minister

was one of the most outspoken and controversial visitors. On October 17, 2005, Koizumi visited the shrine for the fifth time since taking office. Although he claimed that his visit was a private affair, it came only days before

Japanese Foreign Minister The is a member of the cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister is responsible for implementing Japan’s foreign policy and is also a statutory member of the National Security Cou ...

Nobutaka Machimura was a Japanese politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party.

was scheduled to visit Chinese officials in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

to strengthen Sino-Japanese relations. The

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

responded by canceling the scheduled visit as they consider the shrine a glorification of Japan's past military aggression. Koizumi's annual visits continued to draw criticism from around the world. During the 2005

APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

summit in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

, South Korea, Chinese Foreign Minister

Li Zhaoxing Li Zhaoxing (; born 20 October 1940 in Jiaonan, Qingdao, Shandong) is a Chinese diplomat and politician. He served as the Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2007. He graduated from Peking University in 1964. He wor ...

blasted Koizumi's visits, asking, "What would European people think if German leaders were to visit (memorials) related to Hitler and Nazis?" In 2006,

Henry Hyde Henry John Hyde (April 18, 1924 – November 29, 2007) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago's ...

, chairman of the

United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, also known as the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a standing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives with jurisdiction over bills and investigations concerning the foreign affairs o ...

, stated that Koizumi would embarrass the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

and offend American veterans of World War II if he were to give a Congressional speech after making another visit to Yasukuni. Koizumi's expected successor,

, visited the shrine in April 2006 before he took office. Although this visit concerned both Chinese and South Korean governments, Abe remained vague as to whether he had visited or would visit the shrine in the future. Subsequent events have led some to suggest that a compromise on the issue was reached with China. Abe publicly supported his predecessor's visits to the shrine, and he made at least one visit to the shrine during his term as prime minister. On June 7, 2007, former

President of the Republic of China The president of the Republic of China, now often referred to as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC), as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The position once had aut ...

Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the fir ...

visited the Shrine to pay tribute to his older brother who died in the

Japanese Imperial Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

; he too volunteered as a

officer. Former Prime Minister

Yasuo Fukuda is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving in that role from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Ministers Yoshirō M ...

has vowed never to visit the shrine. Fukuda's open political opposition to the shrine has helped improve relations with China, and North and South Korea. A group of 62 Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party and the People's New Party, including former

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

Yoshinobu Shimamura is a Japanese politician. Overviews Born in Edogawa, Tokyo, he graduated from the Faculty of Politics & Economics at Gakushuin University in 1956 and then entered ENEOS, a Japanese oil company. He also worked as an aide to the Head of the De ...

and Fukuda's special adviser

Eriko Yamatani is a Japanese politician. Her name in official documents is . Life and career Born in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. Her father was a ''Sankei Shimbun'' newspaper reporter. She spent her childhood in Fukui city, where her wealthy family ran the ge ...

, visited the shrine on April 22, 2008.''Lawmakers visit Yasukuni festival'', http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080423a5.html On April 23, 2013, a group of 169 Japanese lawmakers visited the shrine. General opinions in Japan of the politicians' visits have varied significantly, with the percentages of those who approve ranging from as low as 38% in telephone surveys to as high as 71% on the internet. In a 2015 self-administered survey by

Genron NPO Genron NPO (言論ＮＰＯ) is a Japanese think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technol ...

, 66% of the respondents did not see a problem with the visits while 15.7% opposed them completely. A 2006 public opinion poll taken by ''

Nihon Keizai Shimbun ''The Nikkei'', also known as , is the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. (based in Tokyo) and the world's largest financial newspaper, with a daily circulation exceeding 1.73 million copies. The Nikkei 225, a stock market index for the Tok ...

'' also found that half of the respondents supported Koizumi's visit to the shrine while 37% opposed it.

Foreign political visitors

Pre-war

* President Emeritus of Harvard University

Charles William Eliot Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfo ...

visited on July 10, 1913. *

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston Major General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston (29 November 1858 – 18 August 1919) was a senior British Army officer. Military career Barnardiston was commissioned into the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot in 1878. After seeing active se ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

visited on December 14, 1914. *

Marshal of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished (1 ...

Joseph Joffre Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (12 January 1852 – 3 January 1931) was a French general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916. He is best known for regroup ...

visited on January 21, 1922. * Crown Prince of Romania

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...

visited on July 7, 1920. * Edward, Prince of Wales visited on April 18, 1922. *

Crown Prince of Sweden This page is a list of heirs to the Swedish throne. The list includes all individuals who were considered to inherit the throne of the Kingdom of Sweden, either as heir apparent or as heir presumptive, since the accession of the House of Holstei ...

Gustaf VI Adolf Gustaf VI Adolf (Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf; 11 November 1882 – 15 September 1973) was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death in 1973. He was the eldest son of Gustaf V and his wife, Victoria of Baden. Before Gustaf Ado ...

visited on September 12, 1926. *

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was the third son and fourth child of King George V and Queen Mary. He served as Governor-General of Australia from 1945 to 1947, the only memb ...

visited on May 5, 1929. *

Crown Prince of Denmark Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, (Frederik André Henrik Christian; born 26 May 1968) is the heir apparent to the Danish throne. He is the elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik. Early life Crown Prince Freder ...

Frederick IX visited on March 18, 1930. * Prince of Siam

Rama VI Vajiravudh ( th, วชิราวุธ, , 1 January 188126 November 1925) was the sixth monarch of Siam under the Chakri dynasty as Rama VI. He ruled from 23 October 1910 until his death in 1925. King Vajiravudh is best known for his efforts ...

visited on November 21, 1930. * Prince of Sweden

Carl Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of te ...

visited on November 21, 1930. *

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

visited on August 27, 1931.

Post-war, prior to enshrinement of Class A war criminals

* President of the Republic of China Legislative Yuan

Chang Tao-fan Chang Tao-fan (; 12 July 1897 - 12 June 1968) was a prominent figure and long-time central member of the Kuomintang. He was the fourth President of the Legislative Yuan, and former President of Broadcasting Corporation of China. Life Chang was ...

visited on April 19, 1956. * Former

Prime Minister of Burma The prime minister of Myanmar is the head of government of Myanmar. The post was re-established in 2021 by the State Administration Council, the country's ruling military junta, to lead its nominally-civilian provisional government. The provis ...

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

visited on March 23, 1960. *

President of Argentina The president of Argentina ( es, Presidente de Argentina), officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Presidente de la Nación Argentina), is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Ar ...

Arturo Frondizi Arturo Frondizi Ércoli (October 28, 1908 – April 18, 1995) was an Argentines, Argentine lawyer, journalist, teacher and politician, who was elected President of Argentina and ruled between May 1, 1958 and March 29, 1962, when he was over ...

visited on December 15, 1961. *

King of Thailand The monarchy of Thailand (whose monarch is referred to as the king of Thailand; th, พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย, or historically, king of Siam; th, พระมหากษัตริย์สยาม) refers to the c ...

Bhumibol Adulyadej Bhumibol Adulyadej ( th, ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; ; ; (Sanskrit: ''bhūmi·bala atulya·teja'' - "might of the land, unparalleled brilliance"); 5 December 192713 October 2016), conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great ...

visited on June 4, 1963. *

Italian Minister of Defence This Italian Ministers of Defence ( it, Ministro della Difesa) is a senior member of the Cabinet of Italy, Italian Cabinet who leads the Ministry of Defence (Italy), Ministry of Defence. The minister is responsible for military and civil defence ...

Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...

visited on October 7, 1964. *

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

Daniel Smith visited on April 9, 1969. * Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe

Johannes Steinhoff Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff (15 September 1913 – 21 February 1994) was a Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II, German general, and NATO official. He was one of very few Luftwaffe pilots who survived to fly operationally through the whole ...

visited on January 12, 1970. * Former

Emperor of Vietnam An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

Bảo Đại Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...

visited on February 14, 1973. *

King of Tonga This is a list of monarchs of Tonga since 1845, after the Constitution of Tonga established the role of the monarch. The first monarch of Tonga was George Tupou I. 2008 cession of powers Three days before his coronation on 1 August 2008, th ...

Taufa'ahau Tupou IV George Tupou I (4 December 1797 – 18 February 1893), originally known as Tāufaʻāhau I, was the first king of modern Tonga. He adopted the name Siaosi (originally Jiaoji), the Tongan equivalent of ''George'', after King George III of the U ...

visited in November 1973.

After enshrinement of Class A war criminals

* Minister of Religious Affairs

Alamsyah Ratu Perwiranegara Alamsjah Ratoe Perwiranegara (December 25, 1925 in Kotabumi, North Lampung, Lampung, Dutch East Indies – January 8, 1998 in Jakarta, Indonesia) was an Indonesian military general who served as State Secretary Minister, Coordinating Minister o ...

visited on June 22, 1981. *

The 14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

visited on November 1, 1981. *

Prime Minister of Lithuania The prime minister of Lithuania ( lt, Ministras Pirmininkas; "Minister-Chairman") is the head of the government of Lithuania. The prime minister is Lithuania's head of government and is appointed by the president with the assent of the Lithuania ...

Adolfas Šleževičius Adolfas Šleževičius (2 February 1948 – 6 December 2022) was a Lithuanian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1993 to 1996. Previously a manager in a state dairy company, Šleževičius was appointed Prime Minister following the el ...

visited on September 21, 1993. * Prashanto Pal, the son of Justice Radhabinod Pal visited on April 26, 1995. *

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Wallace Gregson (the

3rd Marine Division The 3rd Marine Division is a division of the United States Marine Corps based at Camp Courtney, Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan. It is one of three active duty infantry divisions in the Marine Corps and together with th ...

's commanding general) visited on April 26, 2001. * Former Minister of Finance of Indonesia

Rizal Ramli Rizal Ramli (born 10 December 1954) is an Indonesian politician, economist, and former student activist. Ramli served as Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs under President Joko Widodo's Working Cabinet. He also served under President A ...

visited in 2002. * Former

President of Peru The president of Peru ( es, link=no, presidente del Perú), officially called the president of the Republic of Peru ( es, link=no, presidente de la República del Perú), is the head of state and head of government of Peru. The president is th ...

Alberto Fujimori Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian politician, professor and former engineer who was President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator, * * * * * * he remains a ...

visited on April 10, 2002. *

Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands The prime minister of Solomon Islands is Solomon Islands' head of government, consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the National Parliament. Since April 2019, the prime minister has been Manasseh Sogava ...

Allan Kemakeza Allan Kemakeza (born 11 September 1950) was the seventh Prime Minister of Solomon Islands from 2001 to 2006. He represented Savo/Russel Constituency in the National Parliament of Solomon Islands from 1989 to 2010 * Former

visited on October 27, 2007. *

French National Front The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: * ...

leader

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

visited on August 14, 2010. *

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

deputy leader

Adam Walker Adam Walker may refer to: * Adam Walker (American football, born 1963), American football running back * Adam Walker (American football, born 1968), American football running back * Adam Walker (Australian politician) (1829–1902), Australian polit ...

also visited on August 14, 2010. *

World Uyghur Congress The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's R ...

president

Rebiya Kadeer Rebiya Kadeer ( ug, رابىيە قادىر, translit=Rabiye Qadir; born 15 November 1946) is an ethnic Uyghur businesswoman and political activist. Born in Altay City, Xinjiang, Kadeer became a millionaire in the 1980s through her real estate ...

visited on May 14, 2012.

Political impact

The controversial nature of the shrine has figured largely in both domestic Japanese politics and relations with other Asian countries. The controversy has been reignited nearly every year since 1975, when

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Takeo Miki was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 until 1976. Early life and family Takeo Miki was born on 17 March 1907, in Gosho, Tokushima Prefecture (present-day Awa, Tokushima), the only child of farmer-merchant H ...

visited the shrine as a private individual on August 15, the day that Japan commemorates the end of World War II. The next year, his successor

Fukuda Takeo was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1976 to 1978. Early life and education Fukuda was born in Gunma, Gunma, Gunma, capital of the Gunma Prefecture on 14 January 1905. He hailed from a former samurai family and his fa ...

visited as a private individual yet signed the visitors' book as prime minister. Several other Japanese

prime ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

have visited the shrine since 1979:

Masayoshi Ohira Masayoshi is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Masayoshi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *, "correct, justice, righteous; wherefore, a reason" *, "correct, justice, righteous; righteousness, justice, ...

in 1979;

Zenko Suzuki The Kudara no Konikishi ( ja, 百済王) was a Japanese clan whose founder, Zenkō ( or ), was a son of King Uija, the last king of Baekje, in southwestern Korea. ''Kudara'' was an ''uji'', or clan name, and represented its country of origin, Baek ...

in 1980, 1981 and 1982;

Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the ...

in 1983 and 1985 (on the latter occasion, he offered flowers which had been paid for with government money);

Kiichi Miyazawa was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the National Diet of Japan for over 50 years. Early life and education Miyazawa was born into a wealthy, politically active family in Fukuyama ...

in 1992, which visit was kept secret until 1996 (he had paid a visit in 1980 before becoming Prime Minister);

Ryutaro Hashimoto was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of one of the largest factions within the ruling LDP through most of the 1990s and remained a powerful back-room player in Japanese politic ...

in 1996; and

, who visited six times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006). Visits by Japanese prime ministers to the shrine have resulted in official condemnation by neighbouring countries since 1985, as they see it as an attempt to legitimize Japan's past militarism. Visits to the shrine are also controversial in the domestic debate over the proper role of religion in Japanese government. Some Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politicians insist that visits are protected by the constitutional right to freedom of religion and that it is appropriate for legislators to pay their respects to those fallen in war. However, proposals for the construction of a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

memorial, so that those wishing to honor Japan's military dead do not have to visit Yasukuni, have thus far failed, ostensibly for technical details rather than the rejection of a secular memorial. The Japanese government conducts yearly memorial services to commemorate the War in

Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts ...

("Martial Arts Hall", a secular building) which is near Yasukuni shrine, so that the attendees can later visit Yasukuni Shrine privately if they so wish. The shrine itself objects to any proposal that a non-religious memorial be built, stating that "Yasukuni Shrine must be the one and only memorial for Japan's military dead." Koizumi has claimed that his visits are to ensure that there will be no further wars involving Japan, causing some to interpret them as an act of remembrance rather than reverence. On his first visit to Japan since leaving office in February 2003, former

South Korean President The president of the Republic of Korea (), also known as the president of South Korea (often abbreviated to POTROK or POSK; ), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Korea. The president leads the State Council, and is ...

Kim Dae Jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democracy and human ...

openly criticised Japanese politicians' visits to the shrine, and proposed that the 14 Class A war criminals be moved to a different location. He said, "If that option is realized, I will not express opposition to visits to Yasukuni Shrine (by Koizumi or other Japanese leaders)". Kim noted that Koizumi promised at a meeting in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

in 2001 to consider building a new memorial facility that could replace Yasukuni Shrine and enable anyone to worship there without hesitation. The government of the People's Republic of China has been the most vocal critic of the shrine and some Japanese observers have suggested that the issue of Yasukuni Shrine is just as heavily tied to China's internal politics as it is to the historical conduct of Japan's military and the perceived degree of its remorse for its actions. They state that tolerance on the part of

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

authorities for large-scale public protests in mainland China against the shrine contrasts strongly with the authority exercised against any kind of domestic political dissent.

Historic meaning and controversy

Yasukuni Shrine is a privately owned Shinto shrine located in the heart of Tokyo, Japan. The Meiji Emperor built the shrine in 1886 to house the remains and souls of those who died in civil conflicts. The shrine is now the memorial site for over 2.5 million people who have died in conflict, mainly in World War II. The inclusion of 14 convicted Class-A war criminals in the shrine has resulted in controversy, particularly after the visits of Japanese prime ministers. China and at times South Korea have also objected to the shrine, as prior to World War II, Japan controlled the Korean Peninsula and parts of the Manchurian region in China and committed the Massacre of Nanjing. "Class-A" war criminals are those who are charged with "crimes against peace" while Class-C criminals are charged with crimes against humanity. Numerous requests have been made by groups in other countries to remove the remains of the 14 war criminals or their own family members from the shrine, but as the shrine is owned by a private religious institution rather than the government, and the removal of remains would violate Shinto beliefs, the requests were denied. In Shinto, a body cannot be removed once it is placed into a shrine to be worshipped as a "kami". It has also been suggested that the Chinese government has its own political agenda in protesting against Yasukuni shrine.

Debate in Japan

One controversy of political visits to the shrine is the constitutionality of visits by the Prime Minister. In the

Constitution of Japan The Constitution of Japan (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , Hepburn: ) is the constitution of Japan and the supreme law in the state. Written primarily by American civilian officials working under the Allied occupation of Japan, the constitution r ...

, the

separation of state and religion The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...

is explicit. Because the clause was written for the express purpose of preventing the return of State Shinto, many question the constitutionality of the Prime Minister visiting Yasukuni Shrine. Often the first question Japanese Prime Ministers are asked by journalists after a visit is, "Are you here as a private person or as Prime Minister?" In addition, whether the Prime Minister has signed the visitors' book indicating the position of signatory as or is diligently reported. All Prime Ministers have so far stated that their visit was private. However, although some leave the signature section blank or sign it as ''shijin'', others sign it as ''shushō''. The issue is somewhat different than that of visits by the German Chancellor to the Holocaust Memorial, which are explicitly made in the context of a state visit. Prime Minister Koizumi recently gave a somewhat cryptic answer, stating that he visited the shrine as Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister of Japan. Some consider such statement as a move towards making visits somewhat official; others consider that it is pointing out that the whole issue of ''shijin'' vs ''shushō'' is somewhat meaningless. Some journals and news reports, such as one made by Kyodo News Agency on August 15, 2006, question whether in the case of Koizumi's visits, which are consistently claimed by Koizumi to be private, can be considered individual in nature when they are part of a campaign pledge, which in nature is political. Currently, most of the Japanese public and most jurists have agreed that there have been no constitutional violations yet. Shinzo Abe, 15 of the 18 members of his cabinet, and 289 of 480 Diet members are affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby

Nippon Kaigi The Right side up ...

, which advocates the restoration of

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...

and

, negates Japanese war crimes, and recommends the revision of the Constitution and school textbooks as well as visits by Prime Ministers to the Shrine.Abe’s reshuffle promotes right-wingers
(Korea Joongang Daily – 2014/09/05) The chief priest of the shrine, Yasuhisa Tokugawa (also the great-grandson of

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned of his position as shogun in late 1867, while aiming ...

, the last shōgun), is a member of Nippon Kaigi's representative committee. The views expressed by Yasukuni Shrine through its museum and website are also controversial. Both sites make it clear that Yasukuni Shrine does not regard the conduct of Japan during World War II as an act of aggression but rather a matter of self-defence and a heroic effort to repel

European imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

. Defenders of (private) visits by the Prime Minister point out that, regardless, there is no other venue to pay respect to the fallen in Japan, so that the Prime Minister as well as the large number of Japanese who visit the shrine have no choice. Moreover, most people (including the Prime Minister) who visit Yasukuni deliberately avoid entering the museum so that the visit remains religious rather than political. A number of proposals have been made to alleviate controversy. One is to somehow "remove" the controversial spirits and place them in a different location so that visits to Yasukuni Shrine would not be as politically charged. This proposal has been strongly pushed by China and Korea. The Japanese government cannot force Yasukuni Shrine to do so (owing to the separation of church and state). Moreover, the shrine is adamant that once a kami has been housed at the shrine, it cannot be separated. The one method which is suggested as theologically valid is to abolish the entire enshrinement, then repeat the entire enshrinement rite of kami since the Boshin War without including the A class war criminals. Some argue that selective abolishment of enshrinement is technically possible, as there are several precedents of selective de-enshrinement in the Tokugawa era. The Shinto processes of ''

bunrei is a Shinto technical term that indicates both the process of dividing a Shinto ''kami'' to be re-enshrined somewhere else (such as a house's ''kamidana''), and the spirit itself produced by the division. For details, see the article about the si ...

'' and ''

kanjō in Shinto terminology indicates a propagation process through which a ''kami'', previously divided through a process called ''bunrei'', is invited to another location and there re-enshrined. Evolution of the ''kanjō'' process ''Kanjō'' was ...

'' exist specifically to remove a kami from its shrine and re-enshrine it elsewhere, but typically leave the kami at the originating shrine intact and unchanged. Another proposal is to create a separate secular memorial where the prime minister can make official state visits for memorial purposes. Critics point out that groups representing families of the war dead express no interest in such a memorial, preferring Yasukuni Shrine. Furthermore, the Japanese government already conducts yearly secular commemoration services at the Budokan for the families of soldiers killed in World War II. Afterwards, these families usually make private visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which is located within walking distance. Since the proposed memorial site is geographically distant, were the ceremony to be relocated to the proposed memorial site such visits would be made more difficult. A number of families of the names listed at the shrine have indicated that the controversy is disturbing the peaceful rest of their dead family members and that they wish to pay homage to them without controversy and media attention. There is in fact a memorial to the Japanese (unidentified) war dead within walking distance of Yasukuni, called , which has been suggested could be used as an alternative by Japanese politicians to pay their respects to those who died during the war.

Textbook controversy

In May 2005, in the aftermath of anti-Japanese protests over the

Japanese history textbooks controversy Japanese history textbook controversies involve controversial content in government-approved history textbooks used in the secondary education (junior high schools and high schools) of Japan. The controversies primarily concern the nationalist r ...

, Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi cut short her visit to Japan and flew home before a planned meeting with Japanese Prime Minister

. This was widely interpreted as a reaction to a statement by Koizumi the day before Wu's arrival that foreign countries should not interfere in Japan's domestic affairs, including the Yasukuni issue. Wu's visit was meant to improve strained relations between the two countries following the textbook controversy, and she had planned to ask Koizumi to stop his visits to the shrine.

Removal of the names

In June 2005, a senior LDP member proposed moving the 14 Class A war criminals to a separate site. Shinto priests refused this proposal, quoting Japan's

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...

laws under the

Japanese Constitution The Constitution of Japan (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , Hepburn: ) is the constitution of Japan and the supreme law in the state. Written primarily by American civilian officials working under the Allied occupation of Japan, the constitution r ...

. Also in the same month, a group claiming to represent

Taiwanese aborigine Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 5 ...

s led by politician

Kao Chin Su-mei Kao Chin Su-mei (born September 21, 1965), also known as Chin Su-mei, May Chin and Ciwas Ali, is a Taiwanese politician and retired actress and singer. She is of Manchu and Atayal descent, Ciwas Ali being her Atayal name. In the 1980s and 199 ...

attempted to visit Yasukuni Shrine with the sponsorship of the Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace. Their intention was to peacefully request the removal of their relatives from the shrine, and to pray for the return of their ancestors' souls. Request to perform religious rites within the Yasukuni property were refused and they were blocked from entering Yasukuni by Japanese protesters and police. A demonstration was organized by a group of more than one hundred

Japanese nationalists is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...

to block them from the shrine and prevent them from performing spirit-calling religious rituals within the property the Shrine objected. Japanese police allowed the protesters to remain on the grounds because their entrance to the shrine was not objected by the shrine; however they blocked the Taiwanese from leaving their buses, citing measures to prevent clashes between the two groups. After about an hour and a half, the Taiwanese group gave up their attempt. Kao Chin Su-mei and her group reportedly received death threats related to their visit, prompting the Taiwanese government to request Japanese authorities ensure her safety while in Japan.

Prime ministerial visits

Junichiro Koizumi

Prime Minister

made widely publicized annual visits to the shrine while in office. The official position of the Japanese government was that he visited as an individual citizen "to express respect and gratitude to the many people who lost their lives in the war," and not for the sake of gratifying war criminals or to dispute the results of the

. Koizumi made his final visit as prime minister on August 15, 2006, shortly before his retirement. Officials in the

responded to Koizumi's 2005 visit by canceling a scheduled visit to China by

Nobutaka Machimura was a Japanese politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party.

in protest. Koizumi's visits also provoked negative reactions in the United States.

, a World War II veteran serving as the Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, wrote a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert in May 2006 urging that Koizumi only be allowed to speak at the U.S. Capitol if he agreed not to visit Yasukuni on the following anniversary of Japan's surrender. Hyde's Democratic counterpart

Tom Lantos Thomas Peter Lantos (born Tamás Péter Lantos; February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008) was a Holocaust survivor and American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1981 until his death in 2008. A member of the Democr ...

also pressed for an end to the visits, stating that "paying one's respect to war criminals is morally bankrupt and unworthy of a great nation such as Japan."

Shinzo Abe

Koizumi's successor

visited the shrine several times before and after his first stint as prime minister, but did not visit at all during his first term as prime minister from September 2006 to September 2007. Abe not visiting the shrine prompted a Japanese nationalist named Yoshihiro Tanjo to cut off his own little finger in protest and mail it to the LDP. In April 2007, he made a ceremonial offering to the shrine, but did not actually visit himself. According to official reports the offering was made by Abe as a private citizen rather than in an official capacity, although it was reported that the card attached to the floral offering was signed Prime Minister Shinzo Ab

Although Abe publicly supported his predecessor's visits to the shrine he did not visit the shrine himself during his term in office. In August 2007, the 16 members of Abe's cabinet all declared they had no intention of visiting the shrine on the anniversary of the

Japanese surrender The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

. Abe, who at this point had not disclosed whether he himself intended to go, commented "Paying homage at the Yasukuni temple, or not, is up to the individual, even for a Cabinet member. I expect people to use their own discretion."¨

Sanae Takaichi is a Japanese politician who has served as the Minister of State for Economic Security since August 2022. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, she has served in the House of Representatives since 2005, and had also served in several minist ...

, minister in charge of gender equality and Okinawa-related issues, ultimately visited the shrine in an apparent effort to avoid a rare absence of all Cabinet members at Yasukuni on the anniversary of Japan's official World War II surrender. While campaigning for the presidency of the LDP in 2012, Abe said that he regretted not visiting the shrine while Prime Minister. He again refrained from visiting the shrine during the first year of his second stint as Prime Minister in consideration for improving relations with China and Korea, whose leaders refused to meet with Abe during this time. He said on December 9, 2013, that "it is natural that we should express our feelings of respect to the war dead who sacrificed their lives for the nation... but it is my thinking that we should avoid making asukuni visitspolitical and diplomatic issues." In lieu of visiting, Abe sent ritual offerings to the shrine for festivals in April and October 2013, as well as the anniversary of the end of World War II in August 2013. Abe's first visit to the shrine and

Chinreisha is a small wooden Shinto shrine located directly south of Yasukuni Shrine's honden (main shrine) in Yasukuni Shrine precinct. It was built in 1965 after a proposition by Yasukuni's main priest, Fujimaro Tsukuba and has an annual festival held on ...

as Prime Minister took place on December 26, 2013, the first anniversary of his second term in office. It was the first visit to the shrine by a sitting prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi visited in August 2006. Abe said that he "prayed to pay respect for the war dead who sacrificed their precious lives and hoped that they rest in peace," and said he had "no intention to neglect the feelings of the people in China and South Korea." The Chinese government published a protest that day, calling government visits to the shrine "an effort to glorify the Japanese militaristic history of external invasion and colonial rule and to challenge the outcome of World War II." Chinese Ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, stated in an article published in the

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

that "Japanese leaders visiting the Yasukuni Shrine concerns their understandings of the aggressive war’s nature and responsibility, which absolutely can not be accepted by the Chinese side." The ''Mainichi Shimbun'' argued in an editorial that the visit could "cast a dark shadow" on relations with the United States and other countries in addition to China and Korea. As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the shrine, China's UN Ambassador

Liu Jieyi Liu Jieyi (; born December 1957) is a Chinese diplomat and politician. From March 2018 to December 2022, he was director of the Taiwan Affairs Office. From 2013 to September 2017, he was China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (U ...

said in taking the issue to the UN: "It all boils down to whether the leader of a country should stand on the side of maintaining the principles and purposes of the charter of the UN or to side with war criminals. The question inevitably arises as to what Abe is up to, where does he intend to take his country? The international community should remain vigilant and issue a warning ... that Abe must correct his erroneous outlook of history, he must correct his mistakes and he must not slip further down the wrong path." In response, Japan's UN Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa said: "Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine to pay his respects and pray for the souls of the war dead and renew the pledge that Japan shall never again wage war. It was nothing more and nothing less."

Other prime ministers

In the wake of Abe's first term, his successor

vowed never to visit the shrine, a commitment applauded by Japan's Asian neighbors. Fukuda's open political opposition to the shrine led to improved relations with China, North and South Kore

However, a group of 62 Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party and the People's New Party, including former farm minister

and

, a special adviser to Fukuda, visited the shrine on April 22, 2008. The

Democratic Party of Japan The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016. The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic Part ...

governments between 2009 and 2012 also avoided the shrine.

Yukio Hatoyama is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010. He was the first Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, Hatoy ...

pledged not to visit so long as war criminals are enshrined there.

Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for m ...

ordered the entire cabinet not to visit the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's surrender, and said he had no plans to visit personally.

Yoshihiko Noda is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 2011 to 2012. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and a member of the House of Representatives (lower house) in the Diet (national legislature). He was named to succeed Naoto K ...

stated in his first press conference that his cabinet would continue the policy of not making official visits.

Foreign dignitary visits

In June 2007, former Taiwanese president

visited the shrine to pay his respects to his elder brother Lee Teng-ching (, or Lí Teng-khim in

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

POJ), also known as Takenori Iwasato in Japanese, who is among the 27,863 Taiwanese honored there.Taiwan ex-leader in shrine visit
BBC News (June 7, 2007)

Emperor Shōwa's visits

did not visit Yasukuni from 1978 until his death. His son,

Emperor Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. Bo ...

, has not visited the shrine since becoming emperor (and has since continued after his abdication in 2019), instead choosing to send a lesser member of the royal household. It is unknown if

Emperor Naruhito is the current Emperor of Japan. He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne on 1 May 2019, beginning the Reiwa era, following the abdication of his father, Akihito. He is the 126th monarch according to Japan's traditional order of succession. ...

(Shōwa's grandson) will visit the shrine or not or as an alternative, would continue to send a lesser member in the household as his predecessor did. On July 20, 2006, ''

'' front-paged an article about the discovery of a memorandum detailing the reason Emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

stopped visiting Yasukuni. The memorandum, kept by former chief of

Tomohiko Tomita, confirms for the first time the enshrinement of

Class A War Criminal The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes ag ...

s such as Yosuke Matsuoka and

was the reason. Tomita wrote down the contents of his conversations with the emperor in his diaries and notebooks in detail. He left 12 diaries (1975–1986) and some 20 notebooks (1986–1997). According to the memorandum, the emperor Hirohito expressed his anger and strong displeasure in 1988 at the decision made by Yasukuni Shrine to include

Class A war criminal The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes ag ...

s in the list of war dead honored there by saying, "At some point, Class-A criminals became enshrined, including Matsuoka and Shiratori. I heard Tsukuba acted cautiously", Tsukuba is believed to refer to Fujimaro Tsukuba, the former chief Yasukuni priest at the time, who decided not to enshrine the war criminals despite receiving, in 1966, the list of war dead compiled by the government containing their names. "What's on the mind of Matsudaira's son, who is the current head priest?". "Matsudaira had a strong wish for peace, but the child didn't know the parent's heart. That's why I have not visited the shrine since. This is my heart", Matsudaira is believed to refer to Yoshitami Matsudaira, who was the grand steward of Imperial Household immediately after the end of World War II. His son, Nagayoshi, succeeded Fujimaro Tsukuba as the chief priest of Yasukuni and he decided to enshrine the war criminals in 1978. Nagayoshi Matsudaira had died the previous year (July 10, 2005), which is speculated as a reason for the release of the memo. For journalist Masanori Yamaguchi, who analyzed the "memo" and comments made by the emperor in his first-ever press conference in 1975, his evasive and opaque attitude about his own responsibility for the war and the fact that he said that the bombing of Hiroshima " could not be helped", could mean that he was afraid that the enshrinement would reignite the debate over his own responsibility for the war. Another commentator stated that there are three immediate impacts of the memo. Firstly, the explanation of the suspension of the imperial visit offered by the right is no longer sustainable. Those on the right of Japanese politics had attributed the reason for the emperor's suspension of visits to the emergence of controversy over constitutional validity of the visit by the prime minister or the emperor in regard to the separation of state and religion. This claim is no longer valid in the light of the revelation. Secondly, Yasukuni and its lay organisation Izokukai probably have to make alterations to their stance somewhat. Both organisations have clearly expressed their wish for a visit by the current emperor. Recent rulings by the Supreme Court have also indicated that visits by the prime minister or the emperor are constitutional. However, it is now clear that the controversy over the enshrinement of class A war criminals has to be resolved. Moreover, though the emperor is the highest authority of Shinto, he does not exercise direct control of any Shinto shrine including Yasukuni. However, Yasukuni ideology is clearly in favour of the pre-war arrangement in which the emperor was the official head of Shinto. Thirdly, the revelation clearly shifts the focus of the controversy to the enshrinement of class A war criminals, meaning that the issue of the separation between the state and the church is no longer the main focus. The public opinion is split between those on the left who advocate for the removal and those on the right who nonetheless object to the removal.

New memorial

On October 28, 2005, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) agreed to set up a cross-party "group for pushing forward the establishment of a national memorial facility" to bring about the foundation of a secular war memorial dedicated only to "ordinary" soldiers. This would replace Yasukuni Shrine as the home of Japan's war dead. The group was set to meet for the first time on November 9, 2005.

Yasukuni documentary controversy

In March 2008, a group of lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party, featuring

Tomomi Inada is a Japanese lawyer and politician serving as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, representing the 1st Fukui Prefecture since September 2005. She previously served as the 14th Japanese Minister of Defense from August 2016 to Jul ...

, called for boycott of a documentary made on Yasukuni by Chinese-born director Ying Li about the links between the shrine and right-wing movements such as the

Uyoku dantai refers to Japanese ultranationalist far-right activists, provocateurs, and internet trolls (as ''netto-uyoku'') often organized in groups. In 1996 and 2013, the National Police Agency estimated that there were over 1,000 right-wing groups in ...

. Those lawmakers had asked for a preview on the ground that the movie could be "anti-Japanese". The

Directors Guild of Japan The is a trade union created to represent the interests of film directors in the film industry in Japan. It was founded in 1936, with Minoru Murata serving as the first president, and has continued to this day apart from a period between 1943 and ...

expressed apprehension about the possible infringement of freedom of expression and as a result of the politicians' protests, only about 10 theaters would screen the movie, and none in Tokyo.

Cyber Attacks

Beginning with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the shrine, the shrine experienced regular cyber attacks in the early 2000s. These attacks have been found to originate from Chinese servers in China and involve Chinese-language spam with viruses. These attacks serve two functions. They spam the Yasukuni shrine webpage to overwhelm them and basically prevent them from being accessible. Some of these attacks reached as high as 15,000 pings per second. Cyber attacks against the shrine have also included sending mass emails that appear to have originated from the shrine with viruses to third parties.

December 2011 arson attack

On December 26, 2011, a man attempted to burn down a 13 meter high gate column at Yasukuni. The incident was captured on video and the fire quickly put out by security staff. Japanese police gained an arrest warrant for a 37-year-old Chinese man, who had been arrested earlier the same month for throwing Molotov cocktails at the Japanese embassy in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. The man, Liu Qiang, served a 10-month sentence in South Korea for the embassy attack. Japan formally asked South Korea to extradite him, and China informally requested repatriation of their citizen. Liu stated that he was motivated by "antihumanitarian acts by militaristic Japan," and said that his (South Korean) maternal grandmother had been a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during the war and his great-grandfather had been tortured to death for protesting. On January 3, 2013, the Seoul High Court declined Japan's extradition request, and on the following day Liu returned to China.

November 2015 bombing

On November 23, 2015, at around 10 am, a restroom near the shrine's southern entrance was damaged by a bomb explosion. Chon Chang-han, a South Korean man, was arrested on December 9.

Ai Kayano comments and backlash

On 11 February 2021, Japanese voice actress

Ai Kayano is a Japanese voice actress. She was represented by the Pro-Fit talent agency until 2014. She has been represented by Office Osawa since 2015. She played leading roles in several anime series, including Meiko "Menma" Honma in '' Anohana: The Flo ...

claimed that she had taken a trip to visit Yasukuni Shrine, and commented "it makes for a pleasant mood," which upset many citizens of nations that Japan had victimized during its imperialistic era. A few months after her comment, amid significant pressure from Chinese fans, some Chinese video games such as ''

Azur Lane ''Azur Lane'' () is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game created by Chinese developers Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi, released in 2017 for the iOS and Android operating systems. Set in an alternate timeline of World War II, pl ...

'' and ''

Arknights ''Arknights'' () is a free-to-play tactical RPG/tower defense mobile game developed by Chinese developer Hypergryph. It was released in China on 1 May 2019, in other countries on 16 January 2020 and in Taiwan on 29 June 2020. ''Arknights'' ...

'' had removed her voice work from their games in the CN server.Voice Actress Ai Kayano Removed From Azur Lane and Arknights After Visit To Controversial Japanese Shrine Sparks Outrage Among Chinese Players
' Bounding Into Comics'' Retrieved July 4, 2021

References

{{reflist Foreign relations of Japan Controversies in Japan