China protests Japan prime minister, defense minister's Yasukuni actions

Bloomberg News on Aug 15, 2026

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China lodged a formal protest with Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to Yasukuni shrine and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited it on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

Beijing “strongly condemns” the moves, according to a statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Koizumi visited the shrine on Saturday, the 81st anniversary of Japan’s surrender during the final days of the war. He is a regular visitor to the site. Takaichi was planning to skip a visit and made an offering instead, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Chinese officials said the shrine is a symbol and spiritual tool of Japanese militarism, adding that it enshrines 14 convicted Class-A war criminals. The Chinese foreign ministry said some Japanese politicians are seeking to exonerate the actions of war criminals, conceal responsibility for wartime atrocities and distort historical facts.

China also urged Tokyo to confront its wartime history and “completely break” with militarism. Beijing said a proper understanding of history is the political foundation of Japan’s relations with neighboring countries and an important test of its commitment to peaceful development.

Following the foreign ministry’s statement, China’s Defense Ministry said on its official WeChat account that the visits insulted historical justice and hurt the feelings of people in countries that suffered under Japanese wartime aggression. It urged Japan to learn from history and warned against what it called “new militarism,” saying it could become a threat to regional peace.

(Taiga Uranaka contributed to this report.)