April 21, 2009, 6:08 pmTOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has sent an offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, a spokeswoman for the shrine seen by many as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, said on Tuesday.
News of the offering -- a $500 (340 pounds) potted tree -- comes a week ahead of the prime minister's two-day trip to Beijing where he is expected to meet Chinese leaders.
Japan's relations with China chilled in former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's time in office 2001-2006, in part because of his repeated visits to the shrine where Japanese wartime leaders are honoured along with the nation's war dead.
Ties improved after Koizumi left office, with the two subsequent prime ministers staying away from Yasukuni.
Aso made his offering during Yasukuni's three-day spring festival, but the shrine spokeswoman could not say whether the premier himself had visited the shrine.
Japanese broadcaster TBS reported that Aso's personal office had sent the plant and that the premier had no plan to visit the shrine. TBS cited an unnamed government official.
A spokesman for the prime minister's office could not be reached for comment.
Aso, an outspoken nationalist and a Catholic, has sidestepped questions on whether he would visit Yasukuni as prime minister.
The official shrine visits deeply upset Japan's neighbours. Koreans still chafe over Japan's brutal rule over the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, while China has bitter memories of Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of the country over 1931 to 1945.
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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