Three of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet ministers visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Thursday, in a move likely to infuriate nations that view the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.
The visits by Eriko Yamatani, disaster management minister, Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of female empowerment, and Sanae Takaichi, internal affairs and communications minister, came just a day after Abe met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Indonesia — a meeting regarded as a sign of slight reconciliation after a period of icy relations.
Yamatani, also head of the National Public Safety Commission, visited the Shinto shrine in the morning, becoming the first minister in the Cabinet to do so during the shrine's three-day annual spring festival that started Tuesday. Arimura visited the shrine shortly afterward.