Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is true to his promises, no matter what damage such pledges cause.

Since taking office in 2001, Koizumi has kept his word to pray annually at the Yasukuni Shrine.

The prime minister visited the shrine in an effort to placate his critics.

Despite his attempts to play down the significance of the ceremony, Koizumi's visits to the shrine had an unambiguous implication.

The symbols of Japan's militarist regimes, which prior to and during World War II invaded China and much of Southeast Asia, are still held in high esteem domestically.

If Koizumi had simply wanted to pay his respects to the ordinary Japanese troops who died in World War II, he could have visited the tomb of the unknown soldiers, a memorial that has none of the political or religious associations as Yasukuni has.

To pay homage at Yasukuni is nothing but an innocuous political act. Koizumi has been dismissing the controversial connotations the shrine has.

The Shinto shrine, built in 1869, houses the souls of 2.5 million soldiers who have died in Japan's wars. During the 1930s and 1940s, it became the focus for the official state ideology - a mixture of Shintoism, emperor worship and militarism. While the postwar constitution ended Shintoism as a state religion and reduced the emperor from the status of a god to constitutional monarch, the shrine has remained a constant centre of attention for extreme right-wing nationalist groups.

The shrine is a place that commemorates those who ordered Japan's invasion in Asia and those who were sent out to fight.

Yasukuni honours not only civilian victims and regular soldiers from wars dating back to the 19th century. In 1978, 1,068 convicted war criminals, among them executed wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other Class A war criminals, were secretly enshrined there.

Inside the shrine, signs refer to Tojo and the others as "martyrs" who were "wrongly accused by the allied forces."

While a radical fringe in Japan still insists the country's troops were wrongly condemned for war atrocities, the debate over Yasukuni highlights one of the noteworthy features of Japan's Shinto religion, which does not distinguish between good and evil when it comes to questions of the eternal.

The Japanese prime minister refuses to grasp the political nettle of his Yasukuni pilgrimage.

China and Japan were engaged in a strategic dialogue over the weekend in an effort to figure out solutions to the disputes between the nations.

We have our suspicions about Japan's will and sincerity, qualities that are essential in steering bilateral relations through difficult times.

Japan has, time and again, spoken with its tongue in its cheek. What the politicians say bears no relation to what they do.

Members of the parliament paid homage at Yasukuni on April 22 when their prime minister apologized for his country's colonial rule and aggression.

Japan's way of atoning for its militaristic past has been a thorn deep down in the flesh of bilateral relations. The wound is festering.

By sojourning at the Yasukuni Shrine, Koizumi has driven a wedge between Beijing and Tokyo.

Koizumi's visit was not a faux pas or a personal foible. He was well aware of the opposition at home and abroad - and went ahead anyway.

Far from being a diversion from the domestic tasks at hand, powerful sections of the Japanese ruling class regard the resurrection of right-wing nationalism as an essential political ingredient for implementing its program.

Not true in word and resolute in deed, Japan is putting bilateral relations on a tortuous path.

(China Daily October 18, 2005)