[Anchor]

Today (the 15th), which marks Japan's defeat in World War II, the Takaichi administration clearly revealed its rightward-leaning steps. The expression of "remorse" was omitted from the war dead memorial address, and key executives of the Liberal Democratic Party jointly visited the Yasukuni Shrine.

Our Tokyo correspondent Mun Junmo has the report.

[Reporter]

In her first memorial address on the war defeat day since taking office, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi made no mention whatsoever of remorse for past wars of aggression.

[Sanae Takaichi / Japanese Prime Minister : Post-war Japan has consistently walked the path of a nation that values peace...]

While former Prime Minister Ishiba revived "remorse" last year along with the "pledge not to wage war" never to cause war again for the first time in 13 years, the clock has been turned backward once again.

The expression "we will not repeat the ravages of war," which had been used by successive prime ministers, was also changed to "they shall not be repeated," leaving the subject unclear.

Although she did not visit the Yasukuni Shrine itself, she was reportedly seen performing "yohai," bowing and clapping twice toward the shrine located several hundred meters away just before attending the memorial service for the war dead.

This appears to be a move to appease the dissatisfaction of her conservative base while avoiding the shrine visits she made annually before becoming prime minister, taking into account the backlash from South Korea, China, and other nations.

Defense Minister Koizumi visited Yasukuni for the first time in two years as an incumbent defense minister, and key LDP figures including Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki unusually took part in a group visit.

Kyodo News analyzed that this could be preliminary groundwork for Takaichi to visit the shrine in the future.

In the past, the Yasukuni Shrine unilaterally enshrined 21,181 conscripted Koreans alongside 14 Class-A war criminals from the Pacific War.

Bereaved families, who have been waging a lawsuit demanding the cancellation of the enshrinement across four generations, held a street march in Tokyo on the 9th to criticize the Japanese government's rightward shift.

[Lee Hee-ja / Daughter of Lee Sa-hyeon, a victim of Yasukuni enshrinement : Isn't Prime Minister Takaichi trying to change the constitution? Driving precious lives into war and turning us into victims of war like this...]

Our government criticized the Japanese political circle's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, summoning Takeshi Nagayoshi, the Japanese defense attaché to South Korea, to the Ministry of National Defense building to protest Defense Minister Koizumi's shrine visit, and also summoning Kazuo Chujo, Minister-Counselor at the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express strong regret.

(Video taken by Mun Hyun-jin, Video edited by Jung Yong-hwa, Design by Park Tae-young)