Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Shinzo Abe's visit will make relations with China worse, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes 
 
 Japan's prime minister has infuriated China and South Korea by visiting a shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including some convicted war criminals. 
 
 Shinzo Abe said his visit to Yasukuni was an anti-war gesture. 
 
 But China called the visit "absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people", and Seoul expressed "regret and anger". 
 
 They see Yasukuni as a symbol of Tokyo's aggression during World War Two, when Japan occupied large parts of China and the Korean peninsula. 
 
 The US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement it was "disappointed" and that Mr Abe's actions would "exacerbate tensions" with Japan's neighbours. 
 
 Yasukuni Shrine Built in 1869 under the Emperor Meiji 
 
 Venerates the souls of 2.5m war dead 
 
 Those enshrined include hundreds of convicted war criminals, among them executed war-time leader Hideki Tojo 
 
 Shrine organisers stress that many thousands of civilians are honoured 
 
 China and South Korea see shrine as glorification of Japanese atrocities Yasukuni Shrine 
 
 China, Japan and South Korea are embroiled in a number of disputes over territory in the East China Sea. 
 
 'Major obstacle' 
 
 It was the first visit to Yasukuni by a serving prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi went in 2006. 
 
 Mr Abe, who took office a year ago, entered the shrine on Thursday morning, wearing a morning suit and grey tie. His arrival was televised live. 
 
 "I chose this day to report [to the souls of the dead] what we have done in the year since the administration launched and to pledge and determine that never again will people suffer in war," he said. 
 
 "It is not my intention at all to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people." 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Shinzo Abe is the first prime minister to visit the shrine for seven years 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Woman and children who have died in 150 years of war are among 2.5 million people honoured 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The enshrining of hundreds of WW2 criminals in the 1970s made the shrine hugely controversial 
 
 Officials said Mr Abe visited the shrine in a private capacity and was not representing the government. 
 
 But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader's acts. 
 
 "This poses a major political obstacle in the improvement of bilateral relations. Japan must take responsibility for all the consequences that this creates." 
 
 Analysis If the shrine is so offensive to China and South Korea why did Mr Abe go? Firstly, because he wanted to. Close observers of the Japanese prime minister say he is at heart a nationalist and a historical revisionist. He believes the trials that convicted Japan's wartime leaders were "victors' justice". His own grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served in the war cabinet and was arrested by the Americans on suspicion of being a Class A war criminal. He was later released without charge. But the stain of association with Japan's war crimes in China never completely went away. Secondly, Mr Abe's support base comes from the right wing of the Liberal Democratic Party. According to Professor Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo, Mr Abe is "showing he is a tough guy", that he is not afraid of China. It is something that plays very well to his base. Why Shinzo Abe went to Yasukuni shrine 
 
 The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says Japan made an unwritten agreement with China in the 1970s that serving leaders would not visit the shrine. 
 
 Mr Abe appears to have broken that deal, our correspondent says. 
 
 In August, Mr Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine but was not among a group of dozens of Japanese politicians who visited Yasukuni. 
 
 During an earlier period in office between 2006-2007 he said he would not even discuss visiting the shrine "as long as the issue remains a diplomatic problem". 
 
 Yasukuni commemorates some 2.5 million Japanese men, women and children who have died in wars. 
 
 But the souls of hundreds of convicted WW2 criminals are also enshrined there. 
 
 Fourteen so-called Class A criminals - those who were involved in planning the war - are among those honoured. They include war-time leader General Hideki Tojo, who was executed for war crimes in 1948. 
 
 Mr Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was minister of industry for much of the war. He was arrested after Japan's surrender but was never charged and went on to serve as prime minister. 

 International 
 
 Japan's Abe May Have Hoped To Anger Others With Shrine Visit 
 
 i itoggle caption Franck Robichon /EPA/LANDOV Franck Robichon /EPA/LANDOV 
 
 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe surely knew that his visit Thursday to a Shinto shrine honoring Japan's dead from World War II would be followed by protests from China and South Korea. 
 
 It was also not a surprise that the U.S. embassy in Tokyo would say America is "disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors." Relations with China are already strained because of the nations' competing claims over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. South Korea has also been drawn into that dispute. 
 
 It's been seven years since a prime minister went to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, where the dead who are honored include convicted war criminals. Such visits, The Associated Press notes, are "a point of friction with China and South Korea, because of Japan's brutal aggression during World War II." 
 
 So why did Abe do it? 
 
 The prime minister told reporters "I prayed to pay respect for the war dead who sacrificed their precious lives and hoped that they rest in peace. ... I have no intention to neglect the feelings of the people in China and South Korea." 
 
 BBC News' Tokyo correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, offers some other reasons for Abe's controversial visit: 
 
 — "Close observers of the Japanese prime minister say he is at heart a nationalist and a historical revisionist. He believes the trials that convicted Japan's wartime leaders were 'victors' justice.' " — Abe is "showing he is a tough guy" who is unafraid of China, according to Professor Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo. — And, Abe "wants to radically revise Japan's post-war constitution. ... It imposes not only pacifism, but also Western notions of human rights and civil liberties. It rejects Japan's uniqueness in favour of 'universal values.' ... " 'Abe has provoked China, and China has reacted just as Abe wanted it to,' says Prof Kingston. 'There is a shrewd political calculus at work here.' "What [Kingston] means is that having an external threat in the shape of big and frightening China may be just what Mr. Abe wants to help push through his controversial nationalist agenda at home." 
 
 Earlier this week, Morning Edition spoke with The Economist's Tokyo bureau chief, Tamzin Booth, about Abe's hopes for changing Japan's constitution and his proposed new national security strategy — which includes talk of creating "first strike capability." 
 
 "What we're seeing is the first move towards Japan really shedding that pacifist post-war stance and taking a much more proactive defensive posture," Booth said. 
 
 Update at 10 a.m. ET. Japan Asks China To Protect Against Reprisals. 
 
 NPR Kroc fellow Alan Yu tells us that: 

 Statement on Prime Minister Abe's December 26 Visit to Yasukuni Shrine 
 
 December 26, 2013 
 
 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 neighbors. 
 
 The United States hopes that both Japan and its neighbors will find constructive ways to deal with sensitive issues from the past, to improve their relations, and to promote cooperation in advancing our shared goals of regional peace and stability. 
 
 We take note of the Prime Minister’s expression of remorse for the past and his reaffirmation of Japan's commitment to peace.
– Japanese PM Shinzo Abe set off a diplomatic furor today with a visit to a shrine to Japan's World War II dead—including no shortage of war criminals—that has China and South Korea sputtering in rage. Dressed to the nines and appearing on live television, Abe entered the Yasukuni shrine this morning in order to, as he put it, "pay respect for the war dead who sacrificed their precious lives and (hope) that they rest in peace." And seemingly fully aware of the hornet's nest he was kicking, he added: "I have no intention to neglect the feelings of the people in China and South Korea." China instantly deemed the visit "absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people," notes the BBC, while South Korea is expressing "regret and anger." The US State Department has also jumped in, saying it is "disappointed" with Abe's move, which will "exacerbate tensions" in the region. It's the first such visit in seven years, but what was Abe thinking? NPR thinks the prime minister, a staunch nationalist looking to introduce a "first-strike capability" to his nation's national security strategy, knew exactly what he was doing. An expert earlier this week said of Abe, "What we're seeing is the first move towards Japan really shedding that pacifist post-war stance and taking a much more proactive defensive posture." Another says that with the shrine visit, Abe is "showing he is a tough guy," a move that the BBC says "plays very well with his base." Quartz runs down a list of winners and losers of the visit, noting that "the true implications are likely to play out over a much longer timespan."