"I have just received the judgment of the people. After consulting with senior partners who support my cabinet, I want to decide upon mature consideration." Koizumi, fresh from a solid victory for his three-way ruling coalition on Sunday, told reporters at his official residence.

Koizumi, known for his nationalist tilt, had pledged to pay homage at Tokyo's Shinto religious Yasukuni Shrine, angering Asian neighbors including China and South Korea, both victims of Japan's military aggression before and during World War Two.

Even his outspoken foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka, and his biggest coalition partner have urged him to reconsider the visit, planned for the August 15 anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two.

Takenori Kanzaki, leader of the Buddhist-backed New Komeito Party - the No. Two party in Koizumi's coalition - on Monday repeated his call for Koizumi to cancel the visit.

"It is undesirable for the prime minister to pay a visit to the shrine on August 15," Kanzaki told a news conference.

August 15 is the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War Two but is also South Korea's Liberation Day, celebrated to mark the end of Japan's 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula.

Koizumi has said the visit is not meant to justify or glorify Japan's deeds in World War Two and that he will try to win Seoul's and Beijing's understanding after the visit.

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South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo told Tanaka in Hanoi on Wednesday that Koizumi should renounce an "aggressor's position" and abandon his plan to visit the Shinto Shrine.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan hammered home the message, telling Tanaka that Koizumi would spark fresh Chinese anger if he carried out his planned homage at the shrine.

The shrine is dedicated to the 2.5 million Japanese war dead since the 19th century but also enshrines wartime Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo and other military leaders convicted and hanged as war criminals for their roles in Japan's invasion of much of Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.

The planned visit is not the only issue that is straining ties with Japan's neighbors.

South Korea, China and other Asian nations have also attacked Tokyo over a Japanese history textbook that critics say whitewashes Japanese wartime atrocities.

Japan angered Seoul and Beijing earlier this month when it rejected calls for major changes to the text, due to be used in Japanese junior high schools next year.

Tokyo said it would make just two of 35 revisions Seoul had demanded.

In retaliation, South Korea said it would scale back cultural and military contacts with Japan and threatened to boycott educational exchanges.

Seoul has bristled at the omission of mention of over 100,000 so-called "comfort women", most of them Korean, forced to provide sex to Japanese troops during the war.

Japan has said the textbook, approved by the Education Ministry in April, does not represent the government's official view of history. It has also said there would no be no further revisions.

(China Daily 07/31/2001)