Japan’s premier sent a ritual cash offering to a controversial Tokyo war shrine to mark the end of World War II Thursday but did not visit in person amid heightened tensions with South Korea. Shinzo Abe sent an aide to Yasukuni Shrine, seen by Asian neighbours as a symbol of Japan’s military past, according to his office, but once again stayed away from the site that honours Japan’s war dead, including convicted war criminals. The conservative premier’s move comes as Tokyo and South Korea — one of the countries that suffered most from Japan’s wartime military atrocities — are embroiled in a war of words over trade and history.
