Oct 17 (NHK) - 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.
Source: ANNnewsCH