Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday rejected a suggestion that the government set up a new war memorial as a substitute for Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.
"I think it may be all right to consider setting up a facility at which people can mourn without feeling uncomfortable, but no facility can serve as a substitute for Yasukuni Shrine," Koizumi told reporters at his office.
The comments were made in response to South Korea's reported plan to oppose Koizumi's visits to the shrine and strongly urge Japan to build a new war memorial to replace it when he meets President Roh Moo Hyun on Monday for a summit in Seoul.
In 2002, an advisory panel to then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda proposed that a secular national war memorial be set up to allow any person to commemorate the war dead.
Support for the idea is growing among Japan's ruling parties in light of the worsening relations with China and South Korea, which have pointed out Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine and other issues as critical diplomatic problems.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday that the government's stance of studying the public's opinion on the matter has not changed, and repeated that the proposal has virtually been shelved.