90% of global respondents say Yasukuni Shrine is a 'shrine to war criminals'

On the opening day of Yasukuni Shrine's autumn festival, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made a ritual offering in her capacity as prime minister. Japanese Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Minoru Kiuchi visited the shrine in person, while other senior political figures, including House of Representatives Speaker Eisuke Mori and House of Councillors President Masakazu Sekiguchi, sent offerings of their own. These moves sparked criticism and opposition both at home and abroad.

An online survey conducted by CGTN across its global platforms found that 90.71% of respondents agreed that international media should use the term "war criminal shrine" more explicitly when reporting on the issue, in order to alert the world to the resurgence of Japanese militarism.

Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 convicted Class-A war criminals responsible for Japan's war of aggression and is widely considered a spiritual tool and symbol of Japanese militarism. In the survey, 88.53% of respondents agreed that the offerings amounted to an attempt to whitewash Japan's history of aggression and overturn the verdict on its war crimes, while 87.38% said the conduct of Takaichi and other Japanese politicians had deeply offended people in neighboring countries that suffered under Japanese militarism.

Visits and offerings by senior Japanese government figures have drawn criticism from Japan's neighboring countries. The South Korean government once again expressed "deep disappointment and regret" over repeated offerings and visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese leaders, saying the shrine "glorifies Japan's past wars of aggression and enshrines war criminals." It urged Japanese leaders to face history squarely and demonstrate, through concrete actions, humble reflection on and sincere remorse for the past.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning commented on revelations that the Japanese government had reached an arrangement with the shrine as early as the 1960s concerning the honoring of Class-A war criminals but had kept it from the public. Mao said the government of the day knew full well how disgraceful such an enshrinement was. Fearful of the consequences, it deliberately kept the decision-making process secret.

In the survey, 89.22% of respondents believed the Japanese government should heed voices from both the international community and within Japan opposing politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Meanwhile, 84.67% described the offerings and visits as an affront to historical justice and a grave provocation against the outcomes of World War II and the post-war international order, warning that they would further strain Japan's relations with countries it once invaded.

For years, Japanese authorities have pushed to revise history textbooks, playing down, denying and whitewashing the country's record of aggression in an effort to reshape public understanding of its past. In a poll conducted by Japan's public broadcaster NHK, 48% of Japanese respondents said they "did not know" whether the earlier war had been a war of aggression launched by Japan against its Asian neighbors. This compared with 52% who, in a comparable survey in 1994, agreed with that characterization. Public understanding of history is eroding. In this CGTN poll, 87.92% of respondents said they feared that promoting a distorted view of history in Japanese society would mislead the public, particularly younger generations.

In recent years, Japan has increased its defense spending, advanced the deployment of intermediate- and long-range missiles, eased arms export rules and pushed for revisions to its pacifist constitution. The Japanese government is now considering including wording on "studying the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines" in its planned revision of three key security documents within the year.

Since taking office as Japan's prime minister in October 2025, Takaichi has claimed during a Diet session that a "Taiwan contingency" could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, hinting that Tokyo might exercise its right to collective self-defense and intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait. She has yet to retract the remark. On April 17, 2026, the Japanese destroyer JS Ikazuchi transited the Taiwan Strait, sending yet another wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

Regarding these moves, 84.13% of respondents believed Japan posed a real threat to the security of East Asia and its neighboring countries. Meanwhile, 79.89% expressed concern that Japan's neo-militarism was on the rise. In addition, 73.37% agreed that Japan should confront and reflect on its history of aggression, make a clean break with militarism, and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the wider international community through concrete actions.

The survey was published on CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian platforms. Within 24 hours, 7,475 respondents took part and shared their views.