Two Japanese Cabinet ministers have visited a Tokyo shrine that honors the country's war dead including convicted war criminals, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held brief talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Previous visits by Japanese leaders to pray at Yasukuni Shrine have drawn sharp rebukes from neighboring China and South Korea and calls for Japan to atone for its wartime aggression. Abe sent religious offerings rather than visiting the shrine.
Eriko Yamatani, the disaster management minister, and Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of promoting women's empowerment, were among more than 100 lawmakers who paid spring visits this week to the shrine.
Abe was due to return yesterday from Indonesia, where he met with Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-African Summit.
