From the independent
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has damaged Japan's already battered ties with its Asian neighbours by visitingthe Yasukuni shrine, a memorial to Japan's war dead.The shrine, in the centre of Tokyo, honours 2.5 million soldiers, including 14 convicted by a 1948 war crimes tribunal, and is viewed by much of the rest of Asia as a symbol of Japan's militarism. Two weeks ago a Japanese court ruled that Mr Koizumi's visits violated the country's constitution.
Mr Koizumi's fifth shrine visit since he came to power in 2001 sparked outrage yesterday in Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul and led to the cancellation of several meetings, including a visit to China by the Japanese Foreign Minister, Nobutaka Machimura.
The South Korean Foreign Minister, Ban Ki-Moon, told the Japanese ambassador to Seoul that Mr Koizumi's insistence on visiting Yasukuni was the "greatest obstacle" to formal ties, before warning that President Roh Moo-Hyun's trip to Tokyo in December may be scrapped.
