SHOTLIST:


TOKYO, JAPAN (AUGUST 15, 2025) (ANADOLU - ACCESS ALL)


1.VARIOUS OF JAPAN’S EMPEROR NARUHITO AND EMPRESS MASAKO ATTENDING COMMEMORATION CEREMONY AT NIPPON BUDOKAN


2. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE VISITING YASUKUNI SHRINE, PAYING RESPECTS


TOKYO, JAPAN - AUGUST 15, 2025: Japan commemorated the 80th anniversary of World War II’s end on Friday, August 15, with solemn ceremonies honoring the nation’s war dead. At the main service held at the Nippon Budokan, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako attended alongside approximately 3,400 family members of those who died during the war.


The anniversary was observed nationwide with a minute of silence at noon. In his address, Emperor Naruhito expressed “deep remorse”, saying the calamity of war should never be repeated. The ceremony paid tribute to Japan’s 3.1 million war dead, including victims of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


Alongside the official ceremonies, many visited Yasukuni Shrine, founded in 1869, which honors 2.46 million people who died in service to Japan.


Each year on August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender, the shrine becomes a site of both remembrance and controversy. Official visits often spark domestic debate and diplomatic tensions with neighboring countries, particularly South Korea and China, because the shrine also commemorates convicted war criminals.


On this 80th anniversary, the shrine stands at the center of how Japan confronts its wartime past and passes that memory to future generations.