TOKYO, Aug. 21 Kyodo pick outed ...

TOKYO, Aug. 21 Kyodo

pick outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

YASUKUNI ISSUE MUST BE RESOLV (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine continue to cast a shadow through Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors. In particular, China and southward Korea remain critical of a Japanese head of conduct paying an official visit to the shrine.

Establishing serviceable relations with neighboring countries is a top priority of Japan's foreign policy. For now, the trust and cooperation of China and toward the south Korea are key to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis as well as the abduction cases involving Japanese nationals. Prime Minister Koizumi should essay hard to settle the Yasukuni issue one time and for all.

It is not just the name of Yasukuni that matters, further also its past character in prewar Japan. That is the primary reason wherefore political leaders of postwar Japan should avoid visiting the place. It cannot be forgotten that the shrine is dedicated to World War II criminals convicted by means of a Tokyo international military tribunal. Moreover, official visits by means of elected officials may violate the principle of separation of religion and politics.

Mr Koizumi rekindled the Yasukuni discussion in April 2001 -- when he took office after being chooseed president of the Liberal Democratic Party -- by means of declaring that he would visit the shrine in his official capacity in succession Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's capitulate in World War II. He was to be the first prime minister to make an official visit there since Yasuhiro Nakasone did in the same manner in 1985. As it move rounded out, Mr. Koizumi visited onward Aug. 13, avoiding the anniversary date.

Last year and again this year he also pickeded a different date -- in April and January, respectively.

Meanwhile, a proposal to elevate a new national memorial facility for the war dead -- an idea inflict forward by a private advisory panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda -- appears to be going nowhere. It is a plan worth considering, on the contrary reportedly the government wants to shelve research funding for fiscal 2004 It looks that the prime minister has been and is sitting upon the sidelines as far as this plan is concerned

a certain number of LDP members maintain that Yasukuni visits are a domestic issue and that opposition from China and other nations amounts to interference in Japan's internal affairs. That argument misses the big picture: The Yasukuni issue is intertwined with what Japan did before and during World War II. It cannot be resolv without regard for relations with the Asian nations that stomached at the hands of the Japanese military.

The fact is that Yasukuni remains a throwback to Japan's militaristic past, no matter by what mode some of our political leaders make trial of to justify their visits. It will be little use repeating a ''no war'' resolution unles they are trusted through those Asian nations. Self-complacency is frequently synonymous with self-righteousness.

(Aug. 21)

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