なぜ韓国人は、嫌われるのか？

The government may also claim that Mr Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni will be acceptable if he does not pray in the traditional Shinto way at Yasukuni - two bows, two claps, one bow - in honouring the dead. Clearly, this is an irrelevant detail. The need to resort to such sophistry only confirms that there is something strange about the visit.

Japan needs a new site to be built in memory of the country's war dead, without affiliation to a specific religion and without honouring war criminals, who, incidentally, did not even die during the war. This new place of remembrance might, for example, draw on the examples of Arlington Cemetery in the US or the Cenotaph in the UK.

A new facility should be more than just a repository for the remains of the dead. It might, for example, have a memorial stone inscribed with the names of those who fell in war, or an archive of wartime documents within its grounds. And, of course, input should be sought from the public. It should also be a place where the people of Japan can stand side by side with the people of the world in solemn remembrance.

I shall continue to ask Mr Koizumi to resist the shortsighted temptations of nationalism and to devote his efforts instead to help bring Japan and the inter-national community closer together.

The writer is president of the Democratic party of Japan