TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi shrugged off advice from a ruling coalition partner Wednesday to halt his repeated visits to a Tokyo war shrine in an effort to save Japan`s ties with China.
"It is good that there are various views," he told reporters as China remained furious over his refusal to stop his pilgrimages to Tokyo`s Yasukuni Shrine which honors Japanese war dead, including 14 top war criminals from World War II.
The premier was responding to a comment made earlier Wednesday by Takenori Kanzaki, leader of the junior ruling coalition party, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito.
"In order to calm down the situation at this stage, it is the most important for the prime minister to refrain from making a pilgrimage," Kanzaki told reporters.
The Japanese leaders were speaking the day after Beijing explained that Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi had abruptly called off a meeting she had requested with Koizumi on Monday because of Japan`s perceptions of its wartime record.
Asked whether such a suggestion from an allied leader should not be taken lightly, Prime Minister Koizumi answered, "There are many views including grave views".
"I will make an appropriate decision," he added in response to a question on whether his Yasukuni visits pose no problem.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan explained on Tuesday that remarks made during Wu`s trip by Japanese officials on visiting Yasukuni shrine were at the core of her early return to China from a tour of Japan.
Wu`s diplomatic slap in the face led to anger in Japan which asked for a clear explanation and accused Beijing of rudeness.
But other Japanese government leaders tried to seek calm following the diplomatic affront.
Asked to comment on Kong`s explanation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said, "I don`t think that commenting further on the matter will be productive for Japan-China relations. I would like to refrain from making a comment".
"What is appropriate is to refrain from objecting, rebuking or holding someone responsible in response to each and every word," the top spokesman for Koizumi`s government told a regular news conference.
"How the two neighboring powers would improve their relations is important for the world as well," he said.
Beijing did not specify which Japanese remarks it found offending.
But Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of Koizumi`s Liberal Democratic Party, angered a Chinese official in Beijing at the weekend with a comment on China`s demand for a halt to shrine pilgrimages by Japanese leaders.
Takebe said he had tried to tell Wang Jiarui, head of the international department of the Communist party`s central committee, that the Japanese public viewed the demand as interference with internal affairs.
But he said that due to a poor translation Wang may have thought that the view was his own.
Takebe went a step further on Wednesday, telling a news conference, "I don`t think that various comments, made by the Chinese side on Yasukuni visits, are construed as interference with internal affairs."
The Shinto shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals, of whom seven were hanged for war crimes. The visits anger countries which suffered under Japanese occupation last century.
Koizumi has visited it every year since taking office in 2001, with the last time on January 1, 2004.
05/25/2005 13:08 GMT