Feng Zhaokui, a specialist with the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said as Japan needs to enhance its ties with the rest of Asia against the backdrop of its current economic slump, Koizumi's latest visit to the shrine is not in his country's interests.

Koizumi's visit occurred at a time that his popularity was once again on the decline due to the sluggish Japanese economy. Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party will be faced with strong challenges from other parties in the upcoming elections this year.

Analysts believe Koizumi hopes the visit to the shrine, which recognizes 14 World War II class-A criminals, will help him get votes from right-wing groups.

"Koizumi is sacrificing the interests of his country in exchange for votes,'' Feng said. "This has shown a lack of judgment in the overall situation.''

Zhang Lili, with the Beijing-based Foreign Affairs College, said: "Koizumi is confronting Japan's national interests, which is the friendship between China and Japan, with the right-wing ideas.'' China's Foreign Ministry has acted indignantly over Koizumi's action, saying it has seriously undermined the political foundation of China-Japan relations and it urged Koizumi to take concrete actions to correct the wrongdoing.

Koizumi is the only Japanese prime minister who has visited the shrine three times, with the other visits occurring in August 2001 and April 2002.

According to Zhang, Koizumi and his party are trying to desensitize Asian countries about the shrine issue by making repeat visits to the location.

During his visit to China in October 2001, Koizumi went to the Marco Polo Bridge in suburban Beijing where the 1937-45 war against Japanese invasion started and bilateral relations picked up momentum after that.

However, his second visit to the Yasukuni Shrine plummeted Sino-Japanese ties to a new low and left the rest of 2002, which marked the 30th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral relations, with no top-level exchanges of visits.

Although both Feng and Zhang said it is still too early to predict how bilateral relations will develop this year, they agreed damage had been done.

"The incident has cast a shadow on the scheduled celebration of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship,'' Feng said.

"We will follow closely its development to evaluate the damage it will have on bilateral relations.''

(China Daily January 17, 2003)