New Delhi, April 23 -- A South Korean national holding a banner carrying political messages was arrested Wednesday for allegedly obstructing an annual spring festival at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese police said.

The shrine honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression before and during World War II, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan's wartime past.

The 64-year-old suspect held up a banner carrying messages including one urging "war criminals" to stop praying at Yasukuni and another making territorial claims on an island disputed between Japan and South Korea.

The man stood at the main shrine gate and in front of vehicl...