Kishida sends ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine

NHK -- Oct 17

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to mark the start of its autumn festival on Sunday.

Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's war dead. Those remembered include leaders convicted of war crimes after World War Two.

Kishida sent a potted plant to the shrine under his title of prime minister.

Sources say Kishida had never offered potted plants to the shrine before, and that this time, he followed what his two predecessors, Abe Shinzo and Suga Yoshihide, did.

Kishida is on a two-day tour through Sunday of three northeastern prefectures hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He is not expected to visit the shrine during the festival.

Two other members of Kishida's Cabinet, health minister Goto Shigeyuki and expo minister Wakamiya Kenji, also made ritual offerings to the shrine.

Oct 17 (ANNnewsCH) - 17日始まった靖国神社の秋の例大祭に合わせて岸田総理大臣が真榊(まさかき)と呼ばれる供え物を奉納しました。