About 100 deputies held a prayer at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, a source of friction between Japan and neighboring countries such as China and Korea.

The Shrine honors the spirits of Japan’s 2.46 million war dead, including 14 “class A” war criminals from world war II.

Visits by Japanese political leaders to the Yasukuni Shrine have angered neighboring countries, especially China and Korea, who see the site as glorified by Japan’s military aggression.

China has made “tough representations to the Japanese side” Abe’s proposal and the Minister’s visit to the Shrine, Chinese foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a news conference on Thursday.

Yasukuni is “a spiritual instrument and symbol of the aggressive war waged by Japanese militarists. The act of some Japanese politicians again demonstrates the country’s mistaken attitude to its history of aggression, ” he said.

Between 1910 and 1945, South Korea, which went under Japanese colonial rule, also expressed “deep regret” for its actions.

Yasukuni “glorifies the history of the invasion wars in Japan,” Seoul’s foreign Ministry said in a statement, Yonhap news Agency reported.

Australian associated Press