岸田首相・閣僚参拝せず　靖国例大祭が終了

　靖国神社（東京・九段北）の秋季例大祭が１８日、終了した。岸田文雄首相と閣僚は参拝を見送った。岸田氏は安倍晋三元首相や菅義偉前首相の対応を踏まえ、１７日に祭具の真榊（まさかき）を奉納するのにとどめた。
　１８日には、自民党の高市早苗政調会長が参拝。１７日からの例大祭期間中、超党派の「みんなで靖国神社に参拝する国会議員の会」は新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大防止のため、集団参拝を見送ったが、代表して尾辻秀久会長らが参拝した。
　岸田内閣では、後藤茂之厚生労働相、若宮健嗣万博担当相が真榊を奉納した。（2021/10/18-20:19）

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida refrained from visiting war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its two-day autumn festival, which ended Monday.
   Instead, Kishida made on Sunday a ritual offering of a "masakaki" tree stand to the Shinto shrine, regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism by China and South Korea as it honors Class-A war criminals along the war dead.
   No minister of the Kishida cabinet, launched on Oct. 4, visited the shrine during the festival.
   Meanwhile, Sanae Takaichi, policy affairs chief of Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited the shrine Monday.
   Some from a suprapartisan group of lawmakers promoting Yasukuni Shrine visits, including the LDP's Hidehisa Otsuji, who heads the group, paid a visit Sunday, representing its members. The lawmakers' league skipped a group visit in order to reduce the risk of infection with the novel coronavirus.