Japanese first lady Akie Abe said she has again visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, posting photographs of the site on the same day Japan and South Korea struck a landmark agreement on wartime sex slaves.
“My final visit of the year,” the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrote on Facebook on Monday, noting that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The shrine honors millions of Japan’s war dead, including more than 30,000 Taiwanese soldiers killed in World War II, and visits by high-profile figures anger wartime adversaries China and South Korea.
Akie Abe, known as a fan of South Korean culture, did not say when she visited the shrine. Her Facebook post was accompanied by two photos of shrine buildings.
The Yomiuri Shimbun cited a shrine official as saying it could not confirm whether she had entered the main shrine. According to Akie Abe’s Facebook page, she also visited the shrine in May and August.
Her husband, who visited the shrine in December 2013 — which set off a firestorm of criticism in China and South Korea and earned a rare rebuke from the US — made a ritual offering in October, although he did not go himself.
The announcement of the first lady’s latest visit comes as Japan and South Korea reached an agreement on the emotional and divisive issue of wartime sex slaves that has long soured relations.
A conservative academic close to Shinzo Abe told the Mainichi Shimbun that the first couple might have decided to make the latest visit “to show consideration to his supporters, who are against the agreement with South Korea.”
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