Japan's Koizumi to Visit China in Early October

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is likely to visit China in early October in a bid to mend ties dampened by his visit to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo last month, Japanese news reports said on Saturday.

Koizumi is preparing his visit to Beijing on October 7 and 8, the Sankei Shimbun and Jiji Press news agency said.

Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on August 13 angered China as the monument honours 14 convicted war criminals among some 2.5 million Japanese war dead.

Bilateral ties were also soured by the controversy over a Japanese school history textbook that Beijing and Seoul accused of whitewashing Tokyo's wartime atrocities.

Koizumi hopes to use the planned visit to seek understanding from the Chinese side, and reiterate that he has no intention of justifying the nation's past conduct, the newspaper said.

If Koizumi meets Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the two are expected to discuss anti-terrorism efforts in the wake of the attacks in the United States on September 11, the daily said.

(China Daily 09/29/2001)