Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi arrives at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 17, 2005.[AP]

    BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage on Monday at a shrine for war dead seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, drawing a swift protest from South Korea and outrage from China.

    Wang Yi, Chinese ambassador to Japan, said Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni shrine is a "grave provocation" to the Chinese people, a China News Service report quoting Huang Xingyuan, spokesman of the Chinese embassy in Japan, as saying.

    Ambassador Wang stressed that Koizumi must bear the historical responsibility for damaging the China-Japan relations, saying China opposes Japanese PM Koizumi's visit, "at any time or in any form," to the shrine where war criminals were enshrined.

    Japan's relations with its neighbors have already chilled because of Koizumi's annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal are honored along with the nation's 2.5 million war dead.

    Koizumi -- clad in a dark suit rather than the traditional Japanese garb he has worn on some past visits -- bowed, put his hands together in prayer and stood silently in front of an outer shrine for a moment before striding back to his car in front of a crowd that had gathered in a drizzling rain.

    Koizumi did not enter an inner shrine as he has in the past and made no remarks. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters the visit was made in a private capacity.

    Japanese media said the low key atmosphere appeared to be an attempt to stress its private nature and mute the expected backlash from China and South Korea as well as domestic critics.

    South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, however, swiftly summoned Japanese ambassador Shotaro Oshima to complain.

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

    

South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon (L) shakes hands with Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Oshima Shotaro at the Ban's office in Seoul October 17, 2005. South Korea has expressed strong regret at Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a war shrine on Monday and summoned Shotaro to protest against the move. [Reuters]

Japanese business executives have been worried that the strain in diplomatic ties will hurt burgeoning economic relations between China and Japan especially.

    Japan and China have annual trade of about $212 billion, and Japanese exports to China account for some 13 percent of Japan's global exports, second only to 22 percent to the United States.

    Tokyo stock market investors, recalling a slide in share prices after anti-Japanese protests in China in April, were wary of the possible fallout from Koizumi's visit to the shrine.

    Japan and China are trying to arrange talks in Beijing between Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, to discuss a possible leaders' summit later this year, media have reported. It was not clear how the Yasukuni visit would affect those discussions.

    Koizumi has repeatedly said he visits Yasukuni to pray for peace and honor the war dead, not to glorify militarism.

    TENSE TIES WITH NEIGHBOURS

    Koizumi has avoided visiting the shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's 1945 surrender that ended World War Two and an emotive date in the region, but his visits on other occasions have nonetheless infuriated China and other countries.

    "It's fine for the prime minister to stick to his beliefs, but given his status as the Japanese leader he should think about relations between countries and the people's feelings," said Choi Young-soo, 44, a South Korean on a sightseeing trip to the shrine. "He should not stir up ill feelings."

    Bitter memories of Japan's 1910-1945 colonization run deep in North and South Korea, while China has not forgotten Tokyo's invasion and occupation before and during World War Two.

    Frosty relations between China and Japan hit their lowest level in decades in April, when thousands of Chinese took to the streets in sometimes violent anti-Japanese protests.

    After the April protests, Tokyo's Nikkei share average slid below the 11,000 mark for the first time this year.

    The benchmark, which has since recovered, finished the morning session nearly flat at 13,438.34.

    Despite a huge victory for Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a general election last month, Japan's public is divided over the Yasukuni visits.

    Courts have given conflicting rulings on whether they violate the constitutional separation of religion and state.

    Takenori Kanzaki, the leader of LDP coalition partner New Komeito -- a Buddhist-backed party -- told reporters Koizumi's visit was extremely regrettable, Kyodo news agency reported.

    But Hiroki Kanematsu, a 20-year-old law student who went to Yasukuni to watch Koizumi, said he backed the prime minister's stance. "Since he started making the visits, he should not stop just because of what China says."

    Another student, Ai Yamaguchi, took a different view.

    "It would be fine for him to go as an individual, but he is the prime minister, so it is not good," she said.

    "We should seek good ties with China and South Korea because they are our close neighbors."

    Talks between China and Japan aimed at resolving a row over rights to natural gas resources in the East China Sea have made little progress, and another round is expected later this month.

    Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi flew to Beijing last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Dai Bingguo, to try to mend ties. They had a first round of talks on Saturday but Dai did not show up on Sunday, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. The paper said no explanation was given.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn/Reuters)