China pans Japan leader's visit to shrine

By Natalie Obiko Pearson
The Associated Press

	GETTY IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, right, in traditional Japanese costume, makes a controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine yesterday.
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Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine outrage Asian countries that Japan invaded and brutally occupied last century. They see his tributes there as honoring Japan's militaristic past.

The New Year's Day visit could sour relations with China and South Korea as the three countries — along with the United States — try to rally behind a diplomatic resolution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs.

It also could upset the delicate power balance in Asia, where countries have warily eyed the planned Iraq deployment, Japan's largest overseas dispatch of troops since World War II.

Koizumi said he decided on the visit — which was not previously announced and was his fourth since becoming prime minister in April 2001 — to pray for "Japan's peace and prosperity."

"Japan does not rest solely upon the efforts of people living now ... Japan stands upon the sacrifices of others in the past," he told said.

Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including executed criminals such as war-era Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Koizumi "ignores opposition from the Chinese people and Asian people and obstinately insists on visiting the Yasukuni Shrine," the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. His visit "further harms the political basis for friendly Sino-Japanese relations," it said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi summoned Japan's charge d'affaires to Beijing to voice "strong indignation" over the visit, Xinhua said.

The surprise visit yesterday was widely viewed as an appeal to conservative voters and lawmakers at a time Koizumi is being battered by criticism that he is rashly placing Japanese lives at risk with the Iraq deployment. Tokyo plans to send about 1,000 noncombat military personnel to repair infrastructure in southern Iraq in the next few months.

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