Most Japanese believe Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should halt his annual visits to a Tokyo war shrine, poll results released Monday showed.

The results come, however, a day after a ruling party lawmaker said that Koizumi likely intends to continue worshipping at Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war dead including convicted war criminals.

TBS television network said that 61 percent of Japanese believe Koizumi should not visit the shrine while in office, while only 34 percent said he should continue to do what he believes.

Koizumi has visited Yasukuni Shrine four times since becoming prime minister in 2001. The visits have riled neighboring countries, which consider the shrine a glorification of Japan's militarist past.

Hidenao Nakagawa of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said on Sunday that the leader would likely pay his unwelcome visit again.

"I think Koizumi will visit the shrine again this year, while carefully considering the timing," Nakagawa said on a TV talk show.

Koizumi has argued that the visits are simply a way of paying his respects to the country's war dead, rather than an honoring of Tokyo's wartime militarism.

Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing last weekend, have repeatedly cited the visits in explaining deteriorating relations and anti-Japan protests in China last month.

Respondents to the poll cited Japan's own approach to history, wartime atrocities committed by Japan's military and visits to Yasukuni.

The Yasukuni Shrine honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including the wartime prime minister and convicted war criminal Hideki Tojo. Another trip to the shrine this year by Koizumi would be certain to anger the Asian countries.

Koizumi has not paid a visit since January 2004. He has been coy about further visits, saying only that worshipping at Yasukuni would be carefully considered. The visits are supported by the ruling party's conservative wing, as well as a powerful lobbying group for family members of war dead.

The TBS poll questioned 1,210 people between May 5 and 8 by phone. No margin of error was provided.
 
(China Daily May 10, 2005)