In a video posted to YouTube, a special adviser to Shinzo Abe takes the U.S. government to task for not supporting the prime minister's decision to visit Yasukuni Shrine in December, saying Washington "doesn't make much of Japan."

However, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga hurriedly denied that the aide was expressing the government's view.

Shortly after Abe's visit to the controversial war-linked shrine on Dec. 26, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo released an unusually critical statement, saying the visit "disappointed" Washington and would "exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors."