Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine continue to cast a shadow over Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors. In particular, China and South Korea remain critical of a Japanese head of government paying an official visit to the shrine, which is dedicated to millions of Japan's military war dead, including convicted Class-A war criminals of World War II. As a result, Koizumi's trip to Beijing is up in the air.
Establishing good relations with neighboring countries is a top priority of Japan's foreign policy. For now, the trust and cooperation of China and South Korea are key to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis as well as the abduction cases involving Japanese nationals. Prime Minister Koizumi should try hard to settle the Yasukuni issue once and for all.
Yasukuni Shrine was also a hot subject of controversy in the immediate postwar years. Critics argued that the state-sponsored Shinto institution, which had been used by the Japanese military to advance the cause of war, should be dissolved. Yet a religious affairs adviser to the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers, the postwar allied occupation authority, called for the continued existence of the shrine. GHQ approval of its survival is apparently based on his report.