Tokyo regularly urges a trilateral meeting, but has been consistently ignored by China and the Republic of Korea. Abe annoyed Seoul and Beijing by his visit last month to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo to honor Japanese soldiers who are considered war criminals by Japan’s neighbors. Although Abe insisted the visit was peaceful, China and the Republic of Korea called it an insult to the victims of Japan’s militarism in the first half of the 20^th century.