FILE: Tokyo, Japan - 2024 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of National Diet building, Japanese national flag

Tokyo, Japan - Oct 15, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Akio Ishii, deputy leader, Social Democratic Party; member, House of Councillors (partially overlaid with shot 3):
"I believe it is a tool that Japan uses to beautify and affirm its wars of aggression, and it must never be allowed to become one for justifying past wars and thereby refusing to apologize and reflect."

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FILE: Tokyo, Japan - 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of National Diet building, security guards, students
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FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Various of Japanese prime minister's office, Japanese national flag

Tokyo, Japan - Oct 15, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Atsushi Kouketsu, professor emeritus, Yamaguchi University (partially overlaid with shot 6):
"Takaichi once said that she was not a party to the war and was born after the war. Such thinking is fundamentally wrong. I never thought someone like that could become Japan's leader. Until now, I had simply thought I could not support her."

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FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Nov 20, 2025 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. National Diet building, traffic
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FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Various of Japanese Defense Ministry entrance, sign

Tokyo, Japan - Oct 15, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Masahiko Shimizu, professor of constitutional law, Nippon Sport Science University (partially overlaid with shot 9):
"As Japan's leader, one should constantly express remorse over wars of aggression. In education, under the Liberal Democratic Party's rule, mechanisms such as textbook screening have led to cases where the comfort women issue is not taught, or the war of aggression is not adequately covered. I believe this dynamic, in which Japanese school education fails to adequately teach the mistakes of the pre-war period, is also one of the reasons for the current situation."

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FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
9. Various of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters, sign
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FILE: Tokyo, Japan - Date unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Various of cityscape

Japanese observers have criticized Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other right-wing politicians for whitewashing the country's militarist past, after Takaichi and several other politicians sent ritual offerings to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine on Saturday.

According to Japanese media reports, Minoru Kiuchi, Japan's minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, visited the shrine the same day. The observers said such offerings and visits desecrate historical justice and challenge the postwar international order, urging Japan to face up to its wartime crimes.

Located in central Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 convicted Class-A Japanese war criminals from World War II and is regarded as a symbol of Japanese militarism and wartime aggression.

Akio Ishii, deputy leader of Japan's opposition Social Democratic Party and a member of the House of Councillors, said Yasukuni Shrine must not be used to justify past wars, still less to evade apologizing for and reflecting on the history of aggression.

"I believe it is a tool that Japan uses to beautify and affirm its wars of aggression, and it must never be allowed to become one for justifying past wars and thereby refusing to apologize and reflect," Ishii said.

Atsushi Kouketsu, a professor emeritus at Yamaguchi University, said Takaichi's earlier "remote worship" of the shrine -- sending offerings and prayers without visiting in person -- was tantamount to an actual visit, and rejected her argument that, born after the war, she bears no connection to it.

"Takaichi once said that she was not a party to the war and was born after the war. Such thinking is fundamentally wrong. I never thought someone like that could become Japan's leader. Until now, I had simply thought I could not support her," Kouketsu said.

Masahiko Shimizu, a professor of constitutional law at Nippon Sport Science University, traced what he sees as the politicians' failure to confront history to the country's education system.

"As Japan's leader, one should constantly express remorse over wars of aggression. In education, under the Liberal Democratic Party's rule, mechanisms such as textbook screening have led to cases where the comfort women issue is not taught, or the war of aggression is not adequately covered. I believe this dynamic, in which Japanese school education fails to adequately teach the mistakes of the pre-war period, is also one of the reasons for the current situation.," he said.