Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's determination to visit Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine needs to be seen in the perspective. The visit was not necessarily, as Beijing and Seoul seem to believe, a final proof of prime-ministerial evil.
As we saw in the recent post office privatization fuss, Koizumi likes to see himself as a man of determined principle, even when the principle is rather dubious. Having pledged at the outset of his administration to visit Yasukuni each year, it was unlikely he would change his mind, even if it was clear he would damage relations with China, South Korea and his Komeito coalition partners in the process.
His 2002 and 2004 visits to North Korea to improve relations with Pyongyang prove he does not belong entirely to the hardline right of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, even if those efforts were derailed by that right. In foreign affairs he could well be under the moderating influence of his faction mentor and former prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, whose efforts to open bridges to Pyongyang and Moscow were never properly appreciated. And don't forget that first choice as foreign minister was the dovish, pro-China Makiko Tanaka.