NEW DELHI -- No place of homage has generated more political heat between countries in recent years than the eye-catching Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. At the center of the storm has been a dark horse who became Japan's prime minister more than five years ago and who leaves office next month, having fashioned an extraordinary legacy pivoted on a nationalist shift in policy.

Junichiro Koizumi has weathered a major diplomatic row with Beijing and Seoul over his Yasukuni visits, building in the process a jujitsu strategy for Japan to stand up to China.

A shrine seen by Beijing and Seoul as an emblem of Japan's past militarism has become the symbol of major policy change under Koizumi. After having led the Liberal Democratic Party last September to one of its largest parliamentary majorities in modern Japanese history, Koizumi is voluntarily quitting, content to have laid the foundation for a more assertive Japan with greater strategic autonomy.