Why does Japans Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insist on visiting the controversial Yasukuni war shrine?
It is a question academics, politicians and pundits have argued over, without reaching any kind of consensus, since his first visit as prime minister in 2001. It is also a question which leaders in China, South Korea and elsewhere in the region have demanded an answer to. They have been rebuffed. And it is now a question that perhaps will become far less relevant. Mr Koizumi visit on Tuesday must be his last as Prime Minister, before he steps down in a few weeks time. So now there is a new question to be answered. What kind of mess has he left for the man widely expected to succeed him – Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe – to sort out? YASUKUNI SHRINE Built in 1869 to honour victims of the Boshin Civil War Now venerates the souls of 2.5m of Japan’s war dead Those enshrined include 14 Class A war criminals In pictures: Koizumi’s visit Japan’s controversial shrine Mr Abe, in his role as the government’s chief spokesman, has been forced to defend Mr Koizumi’s visits on many occasions. So
