China Protests Japan PM, Defense Minister’s Yasukuni Actions

Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi has steered clear of a controversial shrine to the war dead, but her defence minister visited, to the anger of Seoul and Beijing.

China lodged a formal protest with Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to Yasukuni shrine and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited it on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

Japan’s defense minister visited a shrine seen by Japan’s neighbors as a symbol of its wartime militarism, drawing condemnation from China following months of tension between the countries.