China denounces visit to war shrine

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni war shrine today in a move that drew a quick rebuke from China.

Abe’s visit to the shrine, which honors 2.5 million war dead including convicted war criminals, was the first visit by a sitting prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi visited in 2006.

Visits to Yasukuni by Japanese politicians have long been a point of friction with China and South Korea because of Japan’s brutal aggression during World War II.

Today’s visit came on the anniversary of Abe’s inauguration as prime minister. Abe, who had visited previously when he was not prime minister, had expressed extreme regret over his decision not to visit Yasukuni during an earlier one-year term in office in 2006-07.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang issued a strong rebuke in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

He called visits to Yasukuni “an effort to glorify the Japanese militaristic history of external invasion and colonial rule … and to challenge the outcome of World War II.”