Japan PM Fumio Kishida sends offering but stays away from Yasukuni, which honours class-A war criminals

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, sent a ritual offering to a controversial war shrine on Monday – the anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the second world war – as one of its wartime victims, South Korea, called for an end to historical tensions.

Kishida apparently decided to stay away from the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo to avoid antagonising South Korea and China, but three of his ministers have made the pilgrimage in recent days.