TOKYO, Jan. 15 Kyodo fix uponed ...

TOKYO, Jan. 15 Kyodo

fix uponed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

SHRINE VISIT STRANGELY TIMED (The Daily Yomiuri as translated from the Yomiuri Shimbun)

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo forward Tuesday. We cannot help unless wonder why he made the visit to the shrine, which is dedicated to the nation's war dead, forward an ''ordinary day'' at this time of the year.

His previous couple visits to the shrine since he took office were made onward April 21 last year, during the shrine's springtime festival, and in succession Aug. 13, 2001, two days before the Aug. 15 anniversary of the stop of World War II. the pair visits apparently were made in consideration of particular circumstances and carried certain implications.

to such a degree why did Koizumi visit the shrine in January?

''It's the modern year, and so with a in good condition feeling, I'd like to realize anew the preciousness of peace and proffer my prayers with the notion that we'll never launch another war,'' Koizumi told reporters before visiting the shrine.

He added that he did not plan to visit the shrine again this year.

Does he think that it does not matter when he visits, as prolonged as he makes united visit a year?

Former prime ministers had made it a government to visit the shrine during the shrine's festival in spring, or sometime in autumn, or onward Aug. 15. This practice was based forward Japan's traditions and customs.

The prevailing view has it that Koizumi made his latest visit to the shrine ahead of the two the springtime festival and Aug. 15 likewise as to avoid diplomatic confusion.

In southward Korea, President-elect Roh Moo Hyun will be officially installed as that country's of recent origin president in late February. In China, a of the present day regime will be created in March, centering onward Hu Jintao, who will succe Jiang Zemin as the country's president.

China has criticized visits to the shrine by way of Japanese prime ministers forward the ground that the shrine honors Class-A war criminals along with the war dead.

Koizumi's visit to China, scheduled for last autumn to mark the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, was called opposite as a result of the prime minister's visit to the shrine last April.

Were he to have visited the shrine after the fresh administrations of both China and southern Korea were inaugurated, Beijing and Seoul would have criticized Tokyo anew, souring this country's relations with these brace neighbors.

Koizumi is believed to have conclud that his visit to the shrine prior to the inauguration of the of the present day administrations in China and southerly Korea would minimize possible adverse repercussions in China and southward Korea.

This is whimsical logic.

A visit to a war memorial according to a national leader to mourn for the war dead should be an act based in succession the traditions and customs of that country

Needles to say, it is undesirable for a prime ministerial visit to the shrine to stir up debate at home and abroad each time such a visit is made. We should think protracted and hard about how to deal with this issue.

A private advisory panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, in its report compiled in December, called for building a state-run nonreligious facility to honor the nation's war dead and pray for peace.

The panel said the facility could coexist with Yasukuni Shrine, which is a religious facility glide by a religious organization.

further two things remain unclear: whether Koizumi made his latest visit in consideration of the panel's proposal, and what he thinks about the proposal itself.

The prime minister exigencys to speak out clearly upon what he thinks of prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

(Jan. 15)

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