CEOAFRICA gathered that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s younger brother, Senior vice Foreign Minister Nobuo Kishi visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine Saturday.

Yasukuni is the believed repository of the souls of about 2.5 million war dead. The shrine is controversial because of the inclusion of 14 convicted top war criminals from the World War II era.

According to source, China and South Korea, whose peoples suffered under Japan’s militarist rule, said Yasukuni is a symbol of Tokyo’s present-day unwillingness to come to terms with its past misdeeds.

According to reports, Kishi said that his action should not affect Japan’s relations with other countries and that he had not conferred with the prime minister about the visit.