Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on the 17th but plans to refrain from visiting in person.
Takaichi sent an offering known as a masakaki under the title "Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi" to mark the shrine's autumn festival, which began that day, Kyodo News and NHK reported.
Kyodo reported that Takaichi plans to forgo a visit to the shrine during the three-day autumn festival, which runs through the 19th.
Before taking over as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in October last year, Takaichi had visited Yasukuni Shrine during the spring and autumn festivals and on Aug. 15, the date marking Japan's defeat in World War II and Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
Since becoming LDP president in October last year, however, Takaichi did not visit during that month's autumn festival or during this year's spring festival, which came after she took office as prime minister.
On Aug. 15 this year, she paid for an offering known as a tamagushiryo out of her own pocket in her capacity as LDP president. Instead of visiting the shrine, she performed a yohai, bowing toward it from a distance.
Yasukuni Shrine honors the spirits of about 2,466,000 people who died in civil conflicts around the time of the Meiji Restoration and in the many wars waged by imperial Japan. Nearly 90% of them, roughly 2,133,000, are linked to the Pacific War. Among those enshrined are Class-A war criminals from that conflict, including former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was executed following the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.