TOKYO – A South Korean man was arrested by Japanese police on Wednesday on suspicion of disrupting shrine rituals after staging a protest during the annual Spring Rites at the notorious in Tokyo, local media reported.
According to Kyodo News, the man hung a banner inside the shrine bearing messages such as “Stop paying visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines war criminals.” Shrine staff held him back before police arrived and placed him under arrest.
The man is believed to reside in South Korea and had entered Japan on April 20, the report said.
The war-linked Yasukuni Shrine kicked off its three-day annual Spring Rites on Tuesday.
The controversial shrine, located in central Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, honors 14 convicted Class-A Japanese war criminals from World War II alongside the war dead. It has long been a source of diplomatic friction between Japan and its neighbors.
Visits and ritual offerings made by Japanese officials to the notorious shrine have consistently sparked criticism and opposition both at home and abroad, hurting the feelings of the people of China, South Korea and other countries brutalized by Japan during the war.