Abe likely to avoid Yasukuni until after July election: report

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is unlikely to visit a Tokyo war shrine until after July parliamentary elections in a bid to improve ties with China, which says such pilgrimages to the site glorify Japan's past militarism, a news report said yesterday.

The report came a week after Abe hosted a historic visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) that signaled a thaw in icy relations between the Asian powers.

In a diplomatic nod to Beijing, Abe will likely refrain from visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine for a spring festival later this month and probably stay away at least until after upper house elections in July, Kyodo News agency reported.

The report cited unidentified aides to the prime minister, but an Abe spokesman reiterated Abe's policy of not commenting on possible visits.

Yasukuni Shrine has become a diplomatic flash point between Tokyo and neighboring nations that were invaded during World War II. China refused to hold a summit with Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, after he repeatedly visited the shrine.

Yasukuni honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead and is vilified by critics at home and abroad as symbolizing Japan's militaristic past. Class-A war criminals executed for their role in World War II were enshrined there in 1978.

Abe has regularly prayed at Yasukuni in the past and reportedly made a secret trip as chief Cabinet secretary just before the Shrine's main spring festival last year.

"Since this issue has become a diplomatic and political issue, he will make a point of not declaring whether he will or will not visit Yasukuni," Abe spokesman Hiroshi Suzuki said. "That's everything there is to it."

Kyodo quoted an unidentified senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official as saying that if Abe visits Yasukuni, "it could threaten not only the power base of Abe's administration but also that of Chinese President Hu Jintao [胡錦濤]."