Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi faced fresh pressure Sunday over his visits to Yasukuni Shrine, with former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa saying Koizumi should not go again because it would hurt Japan-China relations.
"It is better to remove any factors that could disturb relations between Japanese and Chinese government leaders," Miyazawa said on a TV Asahi talk show.
He also indicated that Koizumi's visits to the Shinto shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored along with the Japanese war dead, is one of the reasons that mutual visits with Chinese leaders have come to a halt.