Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) today said the government “respects” different views in Japan regarding senior officials’ visits to a controversial Tokyo shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including World War II war criminals, but also hopes Tokyo would reflect on its wartime aggression.

“We recognize and respect the diversity of views within Japanese society regarding these issues. We look forward to [Japan’s] continuous reflection – ensuring that the crime of waging war is never repeated – while also anticipating joint efforts [between Taipei and Tokyo] to uphold regional peace and stability,” he said at the legislature in Taipei.

Photo: EPA

“We hope that current Taiwan-Japan relations will contribute to peace in the region,” he added.

Lin was responding to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) about what he described as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “soft” remarks on visits by several senior members of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo last week.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited the shrine, as did several other Cabinet members, on Saturday to mark the 81st anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

The visits drew immediate diplomatic protests and strong condemnation from China and South Korea.

However, the ministry only expressed respect for different views in Japan regarding the visits by Takaichi’s Cabinet members, drawing criticism from the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party, which described the response as too soft.

Asked to comment, Lin today said his ministry’s statement said it respected “different views in Japan concerning their Cabinet officials’ visits to the shrine,” rather than the visits themselves.

Asked whether Japan was the invader during World War II, Lin responded: “Of course it was the invader.”

Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million people who died fighting for Japan, among them about 28,000 Taiwanese soldiers and civilian workers who died while serving in the Japanese military during World War II, when Taiwan was a Japanese colony.

The site is controversial, as 14 men charged with Class-A war crimes by an Allied tribunal were enshrined there in 1978, making visits by Japanese politicians a frequent diplomatic flashpoint with neighboring countries.