Koizumi defies China, South Korea with war shrine visit

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the Yasukuni war shrine on the 61st anniversary of Japan's World War II while South Korean protesters burn his picture during an anti-Japan rally near the Japanese embassy in Seoul yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The parting shot by the outgoing Japanese leader prompted angry protests from Beijing and Seoul.

Koizumi is set to step down in September, and China in particular appears to be counting on his heir apparent, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, to help repair ties.

On Tuesday, Abe, 51 -- a security hawk who has visited Yasukuni himself in the past -- called for dialogue, but declined to say whether he would go there if he became premier.

The Shinto shrine honours Japanese World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals along with 2.5 million war dead and is considered a symbol of Japan's past militarism in the two Asian countries, which bore the brunt of Japanese aggression.

Koizumi, wearing a morning suit and looking solemn as he followed behind a Shinto priest clad in traditional robes, bowed before entering the inner shrine as a steady rain fell.

The pilgrimage was the first by a Japanese prime minister on the August 15 anniversary since Yasuhiro Nakasone went there on the emotive date in 1985, setting off howls of protest in China.