Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday sent a ritual offering to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, a source of diplomatic friction with some of Japan's neighbors who view it as a symbol of the country's past militarism.
Kishida sent a masakaki ceremonial tree on the occasion of the Shinto shrine's autumn festival, but he is likely to refrain from paying a visit during the two-day festival through Tuesday, people close to him said.
Yasukuni Shrine honors the souls of the nation's more than 2.4 million war dead, but Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals in a post-World War II international tribunal are also enshrined there.