Nobutaka Machimura

"It is very clear that the largest reason reciprocal visits have not taken place is the issue of the Yasukuni visits," Machimura said in a session of the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee, admitting that Koizumi's trips to the Shinto shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals as well as Japan's war dead, were an obstacle to summits.

"I hope (China) will overcome differences (with Japan), acknowledging differences as differences," he said.

Junichiro Koizumi

Machimura reckoned the two countries have different attitudes toward the deceased, saying the Japanese tend not to consider a dead person's crimes when paying respects.

He said, "I don't think it is wrong for the prime minister to hold as a personal belief" that his visits to the shrine are to express regret for Japan's initiation of the Pacific War and the nation's wish for peace, given the fact that its prosperity is based on those who died in the war for the state.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 20, 2004
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