Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday — the 81st anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender — but stopped short of visiting the site in person, in a careful gesture that reflects the diplomatic sensitivities surrounding one of Asia's most contentious landmarks.

Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, honours approximately 2.5 million war dead, the vast majority of them Japanese. It also enshrines 14 Class A war criminals convicted after World War II for their roles in Imperial Japan's invasion and occupation of large parts of Asia during the 1930s and 1940s. For South Korea, China and other neighbours, visits by senior Japanese officials to the shrine carry deep symbolic weight, widely interpreted as a failure to fully reckon with wartime atrocities. Before becoming prime minister in October 2025, Takaichi had visited the shrine every year on August 15. Speculation had mounted that she might follow the example of her political mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited the shrine in December 2013 — a move that triggered fury in Beijing and Seoul and drew a rare rebuke from Washington. Takaichi is understood to have refrained this year in consideration of those likely protests.

While the prime minister stayed away, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi — son of Junichiro Koizumi, the last sitting prime minister to visit the shrine on August 15, in 2006 — made his first visit to Yasukuni in his capacity as defence chief. The Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, Hitoshi Kikawada, and a group of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leaders also visited the shrine in a collective appearance. Koizumi's attendance as defence minister is likely to draw criticism from Beijing, Seoul and Pyongyang, following a pattern established when his predecessor in the role visited in 2024.

The day's events were further shadowed by Takaichi's formal address at a government ceremony mourning Japan's war dead, in which she notably omitted any expression of "remorse" — a word used by her predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba. She said only that "the horrors of war must never be repeated" and that Japan had "consistently walked the path of a nation that values peace." The omission was seen as a departure from the language of contrition that has characterised such addresses in recent years.

The anniversary comes amid significant strain in Japan–China relations. Takaichi provoked Beijing in November by suggesting Japan would intervene militarily in any conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory. China has since warned its citizens against travel to Japan, imposed trade restrictions, and stepped up patrols near disputed islands in the East China Sea. A day before the anniversary, a Chinese defence ministry spokesperson urged Japan to "recognise and atone for its crimes" and stop what Beijing characterised as dangerous remilitarisation. The Russian and Chinese ambassadors to Japan also issued a joint statement referencing their countries' wartime sacrifices — an unusual display of diplomatic coordination. By contrast, Japan–South Korea ties have shown signs of warming, with Takaichi and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung engaging in informal cultural diplomacy earlier this year.