Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should realize that he holds the key to settling the growing discord with China even as Beijing adds fuel to the fire by urging the Japanese government to restrict news media reports on the alleged security threat posed by China.

At a New Year's news conference Jan. 4, Koizumi defied international and domestic criticisms of his visits to Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial to Japan's war dead. Controversy is raging, meanwhile, over the pros and cons of making the shrine visits an issue ahead of the governing Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election in September, when Koizumi will step down as party leader and prime minister.

Since taking office five years ago, Koizumi has paid annual visits to the shrine, making the excuse each time that he was merely paying his respects to the war dead and renewing a pledge of "no war." At the Jan. 4 news conference, he turned defiant, saying he did not understand the criticisms from intellectuals and news commentators whom he said were supposed to be opposed to political intervention in the freedom of thought. And he said it was beyond comprehension that foreign governments were trying to make a diplomatic issue out of his personal beliefs.