Regarding the Aug. 15 story “Cabinet members, including Shinjiro Koizumi, visit war-linked Yasukuni Shrine as Abe makes offering,” prominent Japanese politicians paying their respects at a shrine where Class-A war criminals are honored is performative politics at its finest.
This was a proven tactic used by Prime Minister Koizumi in order to gain support from the conservative wing of the LDP, so his son Shinjiro is following in his footsteps. However performative this visit may have been for Shinjiro, I am still deeply disappointed in the power such an act holds.
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