Yasukuni

In the Cabinet's e-mail magazine, Koizumi repeated his past statements about his Yasukuni visits in a message on praying for the war dead.

"Ever since becoming prime minister, I have visited Yasukuni Shrine once a year to express my condolences to those who reluctantly gave up their lives in war," Koizumi said in the message. "It is natural for any nation and any person to mourn those who have died in war."

"In essence, I believe what they are saying is to not do anything that will upset China," Koizumi said.

He also said Beijing was being unreasonable.

"China has said that summit meetings between the leaders of the two nations will not be held if I visit the shrine," Koizumi said. "I cannot understand such thinking."asahi

8月１５日参拝説が高まるなか、小泉首相が先手を打っているようです。

次期首相最有力候補の安倍氏は

"Prime ministers and Cabinet ministers can freely pay visits (to the shrine) in their private capacity," Abe told a news conference Friday after a regular Cabinet meeting. "Even if they write down their title in the shrine's visitors' book, it doesn't mean they did so in their official capacity."mainichiiAugust 4, 2006

で、中国側はというと、

08/03/2006
BY HIROSHI MATSUBARA, STAFF WRITER


Of the Chinese with a negative image of Japan, 71.3 percent cited Japan's wartime actions in China and 64.6 percent mentioned Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine and other moves.

Among the Chinese, 51.1 percent said they will never tolerate Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine under any circumstances.

But 30.4 percent said the visits would be acceptable if the Class-A war criminals are removed from the shrine.(IHT/Asahi: August 3,2006)

６４％の中国人が靖国参拝を許せないとして、５１％がどんな形でもだめ、３０％のみＡ級戦犯が分祀されればいいというのですから、Ａ級戦犯分祀しても批判は続くわけです。注目したいのは、日本が嫌いな理由は戦争被害というのがトップなわけですけから、参拝する、しないに関わらず、そのイメージは変わらない。そんなら参拝に関して中国の言うこと聞いても余り意味ないということで、参拝するでしょうね。
もっとも、日本のイメージというのは中国政府に操作されたイメージですから、これからどうなるかそれはまだ未知数でしょう。