Koizumi visits shrine despite condemnation

Ignoring protests and international condemnation, the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, pushed ahead yesterday with his visit to a controversial war shrine dedicated to millions of Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals.

The long-expected visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo was brought forward suddenly from tomorrow - the 56th anniversary of Japan's second World War defeat - to stem the rising tide of anger from Japan's Asian neighbours.

Mr Koizumi was ushered through a side entrance of the Shinto shrine to avoid thousands demonstrating both for and against the visit. Nationalists distributing rising-run flags scuffled with protesters as the Prime Minister briefly paid his respects and left under heavy police guard.

The visit was preceded by a press release from the Prime Minister's office stressing his "profound remorse" at Japan's past history of "colonial rule and aggression" which had caused "immeasurable ravages and suffering" to neighbouring Asian countries. The unusually clear statement of war guilt failed to mollify South Korea and China, however, which reacted angrily.

A statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed "strong indignation" about what it called "an erroneous act" that had "damaged relations between the two countries". Seoul said good relations between Asian neighbours had to be based on "correct interpretations of history" and "respect for the national sentiment of other countries". A group of 20 men protested in a Seoul park by chopping off the tops of their fingers. Koreans based in Japan have been on hunger strike outside Yasukuni for days and a small number held a demonstration near the Diet building yesterday.

The uproar was the first real test of Mr Koizumi's mettle following months of sky-high approval ratings and has raised serious doubts about his political judgment. The visit to the shrine, which honours about 2.4 million war dead, including the war-time leader, Hideki Tojo, and is widely seen in Asia as a symbol of Japan's militarist past, has pleased nobody.

Nationalists, including over a hundred lawmakers in his own Liberal Democratic Party, are unhappy with the decision to move the date forward and avoid the heavy symbolism of a pilgrimage on the anniversary of Japan's defeat in 1945. Others inside and outside Japan are deeply unhappy at what they consider Mr Koizumi's appeasement of his right-wing supporters.

The Prime Minister's carefully controlled behaviour at the shrine underlines the emotive symbolism attached to the memorial and the country's troubled relationship with its past.

Although he signed the visitors book with his cabinet title, Mr Koizumi used his own money to pay for flowers and refused to clarify afterward whether he was acting in a personal or official capacity. The only post-war prime minister to officially visit the shrine was Mr Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985. The outcry that followed dissuaded anyone from doing it again.