TOKYO // Japan’s nationalist prime minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit to the Yasukuni war shrine on Thursday, prompting China to accuse Japan of whitewashing a history of warmongering and warn it must “bear the consequences”.
South Korea also blasted the “anachronistic” move, and Tokyo’s chief ally, the United States, said it was disappointed with an act that it would worsen tensions with Japan’s neighbours.
Mr Abe described his visit, which came days after he gave Japan’s military its second consecutive annual budget increase, as a pledge against war and said it was not aimed at hurting feelings in China or South Korea.
The Yasukuni Shrine honours about 2.5 million war dead, most of them common soldiers but also several high-level officials executed for war crimes after World War Two.
South Korea and China, both victims of Japan’s 20th-century aggression, see it as a symbol of Tokyo’s lack of repentance for the horrors of last century.
Mr Abe however said the purpose of his visit was to “to renew the pledge that Japan must never wage a war again”.
The visit came exactly a year after Mr Abe took office, a period in which he has formally met neither China’s president, Xi Jinping, nor South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye.
Ties with Beijing were bad before Mr Abe took office, with the two countries contesting the ownership of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
The dispute has intensified this year, with the involvement of military aircraft and ships, leaving some observers warning of the danger of armed conflict.
Beijing wasted no time in slamming Mr Abe’s visit, which came on the day Mr Xi and other senior Chinese leaders visited the mausoleum of the late leader Mao Zedong to mark his 120th birth anniversary.
China summoned Tokyo’s ambassador and delivered a “strong protest and severe reprimand”, the foreign ministry said.
The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said the shrine visit was “a flagrant provocation against international justice”.
A foreign ministry official called the visit “absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people” and cautioned Japan “must bear the consequences arising from this”.
The last incumbent Japanese prime minister to visit the shrine was Junichiro Koizumi in 2006. His repeated pilgrimages badly soured relations with China despite their economic and trade ties.
The foreign ministry in Tokyo said Mr Abe “visited Yasukuni Shrine in a purely personal capacity”.
But China and South Korea say no such distinction exists.
“The visit ... is anachronistic behaviour that fundamentally damages not only relations between the South and Japan but also stability and cooperation in Northeast Asia,” said the South Korean culture minister, Yoo Jin-ryong.
Washington must tread a careful line between supporting its chief regional ally in the face of China’s rise, and emboldening a prime minister many observers see as a hot-headed troublemaker. It offered qualified criticism.
“Japan is a valued ally and friend. Nevertheless, the United States is disappointed that Japan’s leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan’s neighbours,” Washington said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Muguruza's singles career in stats
WTA titles 3
Prize money US$11,128,219 (Dh40,873,133.82)
Wins / losses 293 / 149
Our family matters legal consultant
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.
Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
Begin your cryptocurrency journey here.
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Business Insights
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