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Japanese police arrest a South Korean for allegedly obstructing Yasukuni Shrine festival

TOKYO (AP) — A South Korean national holding a banner carrying political messages was arrested Wednesday for allegedly obstructing an annual spring festival at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese police said.

The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression before and during World War II, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.

The 64-year-old suspect held up a banner carrying messages including one urging “war criminals” to stop praying at Yasukuni and another making territorial claims on an island disputed between Japan and South Korea.

The man stood at the main shrine gate and in front of vehicles carrying messengers from the emperor, Kyodo News agency said. The messengers were scheduled to deliver offerings from the emperor, the shrine said on its website.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who used to regularly pray at the shrine, sent a religious ornament instead for the second time as Japan’s leader, triggering criticism from China and South Korea.

A group of more than 100 right-wing lawmakers, including a Cabinet minister, prayed at the shrine on Wednesday.

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Associated Press video journalist Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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