Japan PM Ishiba sends offering to Yasukuni Shrine ahead of election

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sent an offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, his office said on Thursday, drawing criticism from South Korea which views the shrine as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past.

The shrine includes 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal among the 2.5 million war dead honoured there. Offerings to the shrine - a rite commonly made to coincide with autumn and spring festivals - by Japanese prime ministers have often angered South Korea and China.

It was Ishiba's first-ever such offering, his office said.

South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement that its government expresses "deep disappointment and regret" that Japanese leaders have made such gestures or visited the shrine. It did not mention Ishiba by name.

Ishiba took office this month after the resignation of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and has called a snap election of Japan's lower house of parliament this month. Polls indicate his ruling Liberal Democratic Party is at risk of losing its outright majority.

Relations between Japan and South Korea have improved in recent years and Ishiba and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol have said they hope to deepen ties further.

(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo and Rocky Swift in Tokyo, Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Edwina Gibbs)