A 29-year-old Chinese national pleaded guilty on Friday to involvement in the May vandalizing of Yasukuni Shrine, which, among others, honors World War II criminals.
During a first hearing at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors said Jiang Zhuojun is believed to have conspired with a Chinese influencer and his videographer to vandalize a stone pillar at the shrine, on which “toilet” was written in English in red spray paint.
Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, is a source of diplomatic tension with neighboring countries such as China given its honoring of Class A and other war criminals, with these nations regarding it as a symbol of Japan’s wartime militarism.