Japanese diplomatic missions in China and Japanese-owned businesses operating there suffered a combined 77 million yen in damage from massive anti-Japan demonstrations a year ago, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
Kunio Umeda, deputy director general of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, said during a session of the House of Councilors Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that about 60 million yen worth of damage is estimated to have been caused to the buildings of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and the ambassador's residence and the Consulate General in Shanghai.
Umeda said that about 40 Japanese-owned businesses also suffered a total of 17 million yen in damage from the protests in Beijing and Shanghai.
Spring Yasukuni trip?
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi repeated his usual response to the Yasukuni Shrine question Thursday by saying he would "decide appropriately" on whether to visit the war-linked shrine during its annual spring festival starting Friday.
"I have decided to only say that I will decide on it appropriately," Koizumi told reporters at his official residence, showing no sign of budging on the contentious visit even as new tensions flare with South Korea over a separate history-linked row.
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