Japan’s Shinzo Abe reaches for middle ground at a sensitive time for a region on edge
Tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to a controversial shrine to war dead on Tuesday, the anniversary of Japan’s Second World War surrender, but did not visit in person in an apparent effort to avoid increasing regional tension. Masahiko Shibayama, a legislator who made the offering on Abe’s behalf, said he did so to express condolences for those who died in the war and to pray for peace. He added that Abe said he was sorry he could not visit the Yasukuni shrine. Past visits by Japanese leaders to Yasukuni have outraged Beijing and Seoul because it honours 14 Japanese leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal as war criminals, along with other war dead. Abe himself has visited only once since becoming prime minister again in 2012. Maintaining harmony with China and Seoul is now more important than ever amid heightened tension in Asia in the wake of North Korean missile tests, threats from Pyongyang to strike the area around the US Pacific territory of Gua...
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