South Korea Protests Koizumi War Shrine Visit

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has caused a stir by by visiting the Yasukuni War Shrine in Tokyo yesterday:

China and South Korea protested angrily on Monday after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage at a Tokyo shrine for war dead that its neighbours consider a symbol of Japan’s militaristic past.

There were small demonstrations in Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul, and Kyodo news agency reported that a meeting tentatively planned for later this week in Beijing between the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministers would not take place.

Japan’s relations with Beijing and Seoul had already chilled because of the annual visits by Koizumi to Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are honoured along with 2.5 million war dead.

The reaction from the Korean and Chinese governments were as expected:

But Chinese ambassador to Japan Wang Yi branded the visit a “grave provocation to the Chinese people”.

“There is no doubt that (the visit) will damage Japan-China relations,” Wang was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying after meeting with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing called in Japan’s ambassador to China to express Beijing’s “strong indignation”, China’s Foreign Ministry said on its Web site.

Japan’s embassy in Beijing advised Japanese nationals to stay away from areas where there was potential for anti-Japan demonstrations, such as those that swept China earlier this year.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon summoned Japanese ambassador Shotaro Oshima to complain, and a presidential aide said President Roh Moo-hyun was unlikely to meet Koizumi for their semi-annual summit meeting this year.

“We strongly protest the visit to Yasukuni shrine despite our request and strongly urge that it is not repeated,” Ban said.

This whole Yasukuni BS is all about these politicians playing to nationalism to draw support. Chinese government deflects opposition to their own authoritarian rule by building up anti-Japanese sentiment while the ruling Korean government draws attention away from thier own unpopularity by playing to anti-Japanese sentiment. While Koizumi does the shrine visits to show his people that Japan will not be pushed around by whining neighbors. This is all politics, unless Koizumi did this to free up some time on his schedule by having the Koreans cancel the summit so he can play golf?