Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to visit war-linked Yasukuni Shrine again while in office, although he may wait until after a visit to China in November to avoid jeopardizing the chances of a summit with President Xi Jinping, according to one of his aides.

"He worshipped there a year after taking office," Koichi Hagiuda, a Lower House lawmaker who has delivered donations from Abe to the Shinto shrine on anniversaries of the end of World War II, said in an interview Monday. "I think he intends to repeat that."

Abe's visit last December to the shrine, which is seen by many in China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's past aggression, drew anger from China, and the U.S. said it was "disappointed."