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Japan PM Shinzo Abe visits Yasukuni WW2 shrine Japan PM Shinzo Abe visits Yasukuni WW2 shrine
(about 2 hours later)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited a controversial shrine to World War Two dead, exactly one year after he took office. Japan's prime minister has infuriated China and South Korea by visiting a shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including some convicted war criminals.
Mr Abe said his visit to Yasukuni was "to pledge and determine that never again will people suffer in war". Shinzo Abe said his visit to Yasukuni was an anti-war gesture.
He said it was "not intended to hurt the Chinese or South Koreans". But China called the visit "absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people", and Seoul expressed "regret and anger".
But a Chinese foreign ministry official was quick to denounce the visit as "absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people". They see Yasukuni as a symbol of Tokyo's aggression during World War Two, when Japan occupied large parts of China and the Korean peninsula.
Yasukuni honours several convicted Japanese war criminals. Beijing and Seoul see it as a symbol of Tokyo's war-time aggression. The US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement it was "disappointed" and that Mr Abe's actions would "exacerbate tensions" with Japan's neighbours.
This is the first visit to Yasukuni by a serving prime minister since 2006. China, Japan and South Korea are embroiled in a number of disputes over territory in the East China Sea.
'Japan must take responsibility' 'Major obstacle'
Mr Abe entered the shrine on Thursday morning, wearing a morning suit and grey tie. His arrival was televised live. It was the first visit to Yasukuni by a serving prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi went in 2006.
"I chose this day to report (to the souls of the dead) what we have done in the year since the administration launched and to pledge and determine that never again will people suffer in war," he said as he visited the shrine. Mr Abe, who took office a year ago, entered the shrine on Thursday morning, wearing a morning suit and grey tie. His arrival was televised live.
"I hope for an opportunity to explain to China and South Korea that strengthening ties would be in the national interest," he added. "I chose this day to report [to the souls of the dead] what we have done in the year since the administration launched and to pledge and determine that never again will people suffer in war," he said.
The prime minister's office said this was not an official visit, and that Mr Abe went to the shrine as a private citizen. "It is not my intention at all to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people."
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader's acts." Officials said Mr Abe visited the shrine in a private capacity and was not representing the government.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader's acts.
"This poses a major political obstacle in the improvement of bilateral relations. Japan must take responsibility for all the consequences that this creates.""This poses a major political obstacle in the improvement of bilateral relations. Japan must take responsibility for all the consequences that this creates."
The bigger question is why Mr Abe has decided to do visit the shine now, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo reports. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says Japan entered an unwritten agreement with China in the 1970s that serving leaders would not visit the shrine.
It could be a sop to Mr Abe's hardline nationalist supporters inside the Liberal Democratic Party, but it could also be Mr Abe's own response to the anti-Japanese stance being taken by the new Chinese leadership and by South Korea's president, our correspondent says. Mr Abe appears to have broken that deal, our correspondent says.
In August, Mr Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine but was not among a group of dozens of Japanese lawmakers who visited Yasukuni. In August, Mr Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine but was not among a group of dozens of Japanese politicians who visited Yasukuni.
Yasukuni commemorates some 2.5 million Japanese men, women and children who died for their country in wars. During an earlier period in office between 2006-2007 he said he would not even discuss visiting the shrine "as long as the issue remains a diplomatic problem".
But the souls of 14 Class A convicted war criminals from World War Two are also enshrined there, including Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo, who was executed for war crimes in 1948. Yasukuni commemorates some 2.5 million Japanese men, women and children who have died in wars.
Visits to the shrine by lawmakers anger and offend Japan's neighbours, to whom the shrine represents Japan's past militarism, including the colonisation of the Korean peninsula and the invasion of China. But the souls of hundreds of convicted war criminals from World War Two are also enshrined there, including Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo, who was executed for war crimes in 1948.
Mr Abe's visit comes as Japan and China remain locked in a bitter dispute over East China Sea islands that both claim.
South Korea and Japan, meanwhile, are involved in a row over an island midway between the two over which both say they have sovereignty.