A 29-year-old Chinese national pleaded guilty on Friday to involvement in the May vandalizing of Yasukuni Shrine, which, among others, honors World War II criminals.

During a first hearing at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors said Jiang Zhuojun is believed to have conspired with a Chinese influencer and his videographer to vandalize a stone pillar at the shrine, on which “toilet” was written in English in red spray paint.

Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, is a source of diplomatic tension with neighboring countries such as China given its honoring of Class A and other war criminals, with these nations regarding it as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism.

The prosecutor said that the defendant personally inspected the shrine and purchased the spray paint.

“There is no mistake with it (the prosecutor's statement),” Jiang told the judge in Japanese.

Despite having lived in Japan for 11 years, the defendant stated that he had never visited Yasukuni Shrine until around the end of May, saying he didn’t even know of its existence.

“I have no interest in history,” Jiang said, but admitted that he knew the shrine was an important place for Japanese people.

He also said he assisted with the vandalizing to protest against Japan's discharging of treated radioactive water in to the sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which began in August last year.

“I wanted to protect the sea,” he said. “I have no interest in Chinese and Japanese history. I don’t hold any grudges against Yasukuni Shrine,” he said.

Jiang said he went to Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture on the morning of May 29 to pick up Dong Guangming, the social media influencer, and his videographer.

Later that night, Dong told Jiang of his plans, saying that he might vandalize the shrine. The defendant also said that Dong had told his viewers during a livestream before he came to Japan that he planned to do “something big.”

Despite saying he vandalized the shrine in protest against the water discharge, prosecutors pointed out that Jiang ate seafood when he was with the other two in Japan.

“I ate the seafood while I was sad,” he told the court, claiming that he was afraid to buy seafood from August to September last year.

The discharge of treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima plant has been a point of tension between Japan and China, with Beijing imposing a ban on seafood imports from Japan.