"I don't care to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." -- Groucho Marx
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to not visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, the 60th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War, was seen as an act of common sense.
With a general election scheduled for Sept. 11 and public opinion moving against such a visit, Koizumi would prefer the election be about postal privatization rather than his dismal diplomatic record. Relations between Japan and its closest neighbors are at a postwar low, and the Japanese people are alarmed, even if they don't fully understand China's and South Korea's bitterness.