Conservative politicians in Japan have infuriated China and South Korea by visiting the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, on the eve of a fence-mending visit to Asia by US president Barack Obama.
The group of 146 lawmakers included Yoshitaka Shindo, Japan’s minister for internal affairs and communications, who was making his second pilgrimage in 10 days.
Yasukuni honours Japan’s 2.4 million war dead, including the men who led the country on its disastrous campaign across Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. An onsite museum plays down war crimes and says Japan fought for Asia’s liberation from Western colonialism.
Prime minister Shinzo Abe has stayed away for the shrine's spring festival but on Monday he donated a tree, a ceremonial offering that China called "a slap in the face" to Mr Obama, who arrives for a state visit on Wednesday.
Washington has been pressuring Tokyo to mend ties with its Asian neighbours, corroded by disputes over history and territory. In December, Abe earned a rare rebuke from Japan's closest military ally when he visited Yasukuni, reportedly ignoring a plea from US vice president Joe Biden not to go.
Mr Biden and US secretary of state John Kerry laid a wreath last year in Chidorigafuchi, a Tokyo cemetery for unidentified Japanese soldiers, in a pointed attempt to diminish the importance of Yasukuni. The US says Chidorigafuchi is Japan's nearest equivalent to the Arlington national cemetery in Washington.
In a speech last week, Mr Abe rejected that view and said Japan had no plans to switch emphasis away from Yasukuni. “It holds a special place in Japanese society,” he said. “I think creating a separate place will be difficult.”
Mr Obama will also tour South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines during his trip, in a bid to stress America’s “pivot to Asia” and reassure its allies of Washington’s military and economic commitment.
But in a sign of choppy waters ahead, Beijing on Monday seized a Japanese ship as compensation for two Chinese vessels appropriated by Japan in the 1930s. Japan’s top spokesman Yoshihide Suga has warned that said the seizure could harm business ties.
Mr Obama also faces an uphill struggle persuading Seoul to work with Mr Abe, who is deeply unpopular in South Korea. Last month he managed to coax an uncomfortable looking Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s president, to meet Mr Abe at a nuclear summit in the Netherlands.
Washington wants to dial down tensions in the region and avoid being pulled into a conflict over territory, especially the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, claimed by China but owned by Japan. Yasukuni visits, implying lack of remorse for the Second World War, inevitably complicate the diplomatic balancing act.
Shindo, however, swatted away concerns about the diplomatic impact of Tuesday’s pilgrimage. “As this visit was my personal visit, I don’t believe that it will have any effect on the US president’s visit.”
