Junichiro Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine Visits.

Howard W. French of the New York Times wrote on "Koizumi's shrine visits cast pall over his legacy" on August 18 in International Herald Tribune. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/18/news/letter.php)

His article begins with:

"Junichiro Koizumi has gotten one thing supremely right throughout his long tenure as prime minister of Japan. Tragedy, to paraphrase him, inevitably follows periods of isolation."

While French praises Koizumi's efforts and leadership in revitalizing domestic economic problems, and in pushing Japan to engage actively in world affairs such as the United Nations reform, support the U.S. in the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, his is also critical to Koizumi's Yasukuni shrine visits. For this, he claims that:

"Unfortunately for Japan, with one of his last acts as prime minister, Koizumi has made sure that scarcely any of this will be remembered. Boiled down to its essentials, any concise take on his place in history will begin and may even end with his singular obstinacy in visiting Yasukuni Jinja, the controversial shrine to the soldiers who have fallen in Japan's modern wars, and most famously 14 Class A war criminals."

French blames the Japanese political culture in general, and the ruling party--Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)--in particular for their dishonesty and nihilism for not reconciliating their past with China, Korea and other Asian countries. Also, equally critical, he argues that:

".......The Yasukuni visits obscure another shame, that the party uses the China bogeyman, coupled with a misplaced appeal to the past, to firm up one of its most important and faithful bases, of graying, nostalgic voters. The shrine visits, with their predictable controversy, are useful for manipulating fear of China,....."

These statements are not entirely true, and if not, are contentious at the best.

Many of the past prime ministers in the last several decades have had repeatedly made official apologies (which reflect the remorsity and humility of most of the Japanese people) to all neighboring countries who were invaded by the Imperial Japan. For example:

1) for the case of China, see http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/china/joint72.html;

2) for the case of Korea, see http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/korea/joint9810.html;

3) former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama made an official statement of Japanese remorsity in 1995, see http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/press/pm/murayama/9508.html;

4) Prime Minister Koizumi reaffirmed Japanese remorsity and apology in his official statement to the 50th Anniversary of Asia-Africa Summit in April, 2005, see http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/press/pm/murayama/9508.html

Furthermore, since Koizumi became the premier, his supporters and voters of LDP have shifted from graying and lessly populated regional and rural townships/cities to urbans/sub-urbans salary workers, housewives and other members of the society. Koizumi's landslide victory (296 out of 480) was mainly attributed to this renewed change of voter bases.

While it is true that Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visits in the past years have generated many debates and controversies domestically, they have also impeded closer diplomatic relationship between Japan-China and Japan-Korea (particularly at the summit level) since the second half of 2001. At the same time, however, Koizumi's persistence also has open up new horizon in re-examining Yasukuni Shrine's visit inside Japan and vis-a-vis China, Korea and other Asian neighbors. Akira Iriyama advocates this line of reasoning in his article at http://www.asiaviews.org.