When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in Moscow last month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he found he had a little time on his hands. According to reports in several weeklies, Koizumi originally planned to spend one day in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk talking to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, but the recent diplomatic freeze put a kibosh on that. So, with nothing better to do, the prime minister did what he does best: He visited cemeteries.
Koizumi may simply have wanted an excuse to wear his new winter hat, but the ostensible purpose of the visits was to lay wreaths on the graves of Japanese who had died in Russia. In any case, nobody complained, and when he returned he approval ratings had increased.
It's impossible to know whether or not the upward spike was the result of the graveyard visits or the hat, but it may have inspired the prime minister into making his "surprise" visit to Yasukuni Shrine a day later on Jan. 14. The official media line is that Koizumi wanted to get his "annual visit" out of the way as soon as possible so that it might be forgotten by South Korea's President-elect Roh Moo Hyun by the time he takes office Feb. 25. Koizumi denies that there is any special reason for the timing other than he thought the New Year offered an opportunity to honor the dead and pray for peace in a "fresh spirit."