The top priest of Tokyo’s contentious Yasukuni Shrine is an ex-admiral, according to a source

TOKYO: According to a person familiar with the choice, Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine has chosen a former military commander to serve as its top priest, possibly igniting controversy over a location that other Asian countries see as a symbol of Japan’s aggression during World War II.
Umio Otsuka, 63, a former commander of the Maritime Self Defense Force (SDF) and a former ambassador to Djibouti, will be the first person to hold the position who has not been been been a member of the armed forces since 1978.

The source said that the nomination was finalized on Thursday, but Yasukuni Shrine refuses to acknowledge it. The individual requested anonymity prior to a formal declaration.
In addition to the 2.5 million war dead honored at the shrine, including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo during World War Two, Nagayoshi Matsudaira, a retired military commander, interred 14 well-known war criminals who had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.
Senior Japanese politicians have visited the country, drawing condemnation from nations like China, which Japan conquered, and South Korea, which was colonized by Tokyo for 35 years.
Conservatives claim that Yasukuni, built in 1869 when Japan broke its more than 250-year isolation, is not a shrine honoring those who are accused of attacking Japan’s neighbors but rather a place to remember all of the country’s war dead. The Japanese meaning of its name is “peaceful country…”.
Otsuka’s appointment coincides with Tokyo and Seoul strengthening their security cooperation with the US, a common ally, in reaction to growing regional threats from North Korea, China, and Russia.
Since Shinzo Abe’s visit to the temple in 2013, no prime minister of Japan has held office, a development that disappointed then-President of the United States Barack Obama.