Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine

The controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine are related to the choice of Japanese people to visit this Shinto shrine and war museum in central Tokyo. The shrine is based on State Shinto, as opposed to traditional Japanese Shinto, and has a close history with Statism in Shōwa Japan. Most of the dead served the Emperors of Japan during wars from 1867 to 1951 but they also include civilians in service and government officials. It is the belief of Shinto that Yasukuni enshrines the actual souls of the dead, known as kami in Japanese. The kami are honoured through liturgical texts and ritual incantations known as Norito.

However, of the 2,466,532 men named in the shrine's Book of Souls, 1066 are war criminals convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, following World War II (eleven men were convicted of Class A war crimes; one was charged with Class A but found guilty of lesser Class B war crimes); a further two men were charged with Class A but died before or during trial so were never convicted as war criminals.^[1] Because of the decision to honour individuals who were found responsible for serious breaches of international humanitarian law, China, Russia,^[2][3] South Korea and North Korea have called the Yasukuni Shrine an exemplar of the nationalist, revisionist and unapologetic approach Japan has taken towards its conduct during World War II. This has made visits to the shrine by Japanese prime ministers, cabinet members or parliamentarians extremely controversial. Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi made annual personal non-governmental visits from 2001 to 2006. Since 1985, China, North Korea, and South Korea have protested such visits.

The decision as to who is enshrined at Yasukuni remains a religious activity. The practice started when State Shinto was controlled and managed by the civilian and then military governments of Imperial Japan. The post-war governments of Japan have continued to uphold this legal separation. The Yasukuni priesthood have complete religious autonomy over deciding whom they bestow enshrinement. It is thought that enshrinement is permanent and irreversible by the current Kannushi.