October 18, 2020

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on October 17 in a street speech in a Tokyo suburb said that making an offering by the head of state to a facility praising wartime aggression puts on display the government stance of having the same perspective as that facility.

Earlier on the same day, Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide as "the Prime Minister of Japan" offered a sacred "masakaki" tree to the Yasukuni Shrine for the shrine's autumn festival following in the footsteps of his predecessor Abe Shinzo. Lower House Speaker Oshima Tadamori, Welfare Minister Tamura Norihisa, and Minister of State for Science Policy Inoue Shinji also dedicated "masakaki" to the shrine.

JCP Koike criticized these ministers for "declaring to the rest of the world that Japan's top leaders share the same historical view as the Yasukuni Shrine which glorifies Japan's past colonial rule and war of aggression".

The Yasukuni Shrine is a peculiar religious facility that supports war. During the prewar and wartime period, it played a leading role as propagandist in mobilizing the people to support Japan's war of aggression. After the war, it justified Japan's past colonial rule and war of aggression. It is a violation of the constitutional principle of separation of religion and state for the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers to worship at or make an offering to religious facilities.

Past related article:
> Ex-PM Abe visits Yasukuni Shrine right after his resignation [September 20 and 21, 2020]