Justin Bieber has apologised to those he offended by visiting Japan's Yasukuni war shrine this week, saying he was misled to see it as only a place of prayer.
The Shinto shrine in Tokyo honours 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted war criminals.
China and South Korea in particular see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japan's past militarism and see visits to it as a lack of understanding or remorse over wartime history.
Two photos removed from Instagram showed Bieber praying outdoors at the shrine and standing beside a Shinto priest.
The images outraged China as well as many Instagram and Twitter users.
In a new Instagram post, Bieber wrote that he asked his driver to stop at the shrine but was misled on its purpose.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article