Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a monetary offering to the war-linked Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo on Monday for its autumn festival, while the country's land minister visited the site, seen by Asian neighbors as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.
Takaichi, as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, paid for the offering out of her own pocket, according to Hiroshi Kajiyama, who heads the party's General Council. The prime minister also sent a "masakaki" ritual offering of evergreen twigs on Saturday.
Takaichi, known as a conservative hawk, is expected to forgo a visit during the shrine's three-day autumn festival ending Monday.
"I brought the 'tamagushi' offering as a token from party President Takaichi," Kajiyama told reporters.
Land minister Tatsunori Ibayashi visited the Shinto shrine that honors convicted war criminals along with millions of war dead, as did the ruling party's election chief Yasutoshi Nishimura.
A cross-party lawmakers' group also visited the shrine, as it is customary for them to do so during seasonal festivals and the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.
Past visits to the shrine by Japanese leaders have prompted harsh criticism from China and South Korea, as both 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.
Economic and fiscal policy minister Minoru Kiuchi and Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited the shrine on Saturday.
The anniversary comes as Sino-Japanese ties remain soured following Takaichi's comments about a year ago suggesting that an attack on Taiwan could prompt a response by Japan's Self-Defense Forces in support of the United States. Beijing views self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province to be unified with China, by force if necessary.
