Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday that he should keep his 2001 campaign pledge to visit Yasukuni Shrine on the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender, despite opposition in Asia and at home.
The statement, made to reporters in Nagasaki, was the strongest sign yet that Koizumi would defy critics in China and South Korea next week and make a trip to the Shinto shrine, which honors 2.5 million war dead as well as Class-A war criminals.
Koizumi promised in his April 2001 campaign for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency that he would visit Yasukuni on Aug. 15 if became prime minister. He has made five annual visits, but never on that symbolic day, which marks the end of the war in Asia. South Korea marks the date as Liberation Day to celebrate the end of Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
When asked if he would honor his 2001 promise, Koizumi said, "It's still valid and I think that's something I should keep."
However, the prime minister, who will step down in September, refused to say straight out if he would make the visit.
"Doesn't everyone think pledges are something you should keep?" he told reporters after attending a ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine have angered China and South Korea.
Last year, an association of relatives of the war dead, a key Yasukuni support group and LDP vote-getter, urged Koizumi to show restraint on visiting the shrine, it was reported.