Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has actually killed any hope of an anticipated summit between himself and his Chinese counterpart during his last days in office.

On Tuesday, one day before his administration celebrated its fifth anniversary, the Japanese head of state showed he is not in the mood to take care of the diplomatic fallout resulting from his personal insensibilities.

Instead of any repentance, Koizumi reiterated an unchanged commitment to his ostrich strategy in handling relations with neighboring China and the Republic of Korea. Someday China will regret refusing to hold summit talks with him for his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, he said.

To justify this, he quoted unnamed "foreign heads of state" who said he was correct and that China and the ROK were not.

For his and those national leaders' credibility, we wish he had been more specific about those comments. We, and we believe many others, have strong curiosity about the reasoning process behind the judgment of those heads of state.

Prime Minister Koizumi needs to know that what is "strange," as he describes it, is his stubborn refusal to come to terms with reason, rather than China's, the ROK's, and other Asian countries' criticism of his approach to his country's unseemly past.

Any person, let alone a head of state, with a sensible mind would see the right and wrong in such a matter of principle.

Koizumi's insistence on China and the ROK, both victims of Japanese atrocities, swallowing injustices and embracing his provocations in full smile is an unfair demand that reeks of criminal logic.

His quibbling and unwillingness to take the initiative to resolve the diplomatic gridlock that has accompanied his term in office are driving many in China and the ROK to look beyond his administration for clues of hope.

Junichiro Koizumi is someone we cannot go around in repairing bilateral relations. Judging from his personal record to date, he may not even regret it if the Junichiro Koizumi years go down in history as some of the darkest days in contemporary China-Japan relations.

But the two countries cannot afford to live in eternal animosity.

Before he hands the relay baton to the next generation, the Japanese leader should consult his conscience and ask himself what image his administration has built for his nation in the immediate neighborhood.

Time is running out for him to rethink and rectify his personal mark on Japanese diplomacy, which is a failure at least in East Asia.

(China Daily April 27, 2006)