Last August, Junichiro Koizumi became the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the Yasukuni shrine in five years. Despite vociferous protests from China, South Korea and other Asian countries invaded by Japan during World War II, he has carried out his pledge to visit the shrine once a year by worshipping there again yesterday.
The timing of his surprise visit to the shrine that honour millions of Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals, could be interpreted in several ways.
A visit to the shrine by the Prime Minister is basically a political act. Last year, Mr Koizumi vacillated about whether to do so for a considerable period of time before succumbing to pressure from right-wingers within his Liberal Democratic Party. His decision said much about the tenuous state of his prime ministership.
This year, Mr Koizumi's position has got no better. Even his popularity ratings among the public have plunged since he dumped the popular Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister.
But once he decided he had to visit the shrine again, he might as well do it at a time he chose. Japanese nationalists want him to make the visit on August 15, traditionally the day the Japanese mark the country's surrender at the end of World World II in 1945. By deciding to visit the shrine yesterday, he might well be trying to heed and defy them at the same time.
Diplomatically, there is no doubt Mr Koizumi and his minders fully anticipated the reaction that would be kicked up by another visit.
No matter when the visit takes place, Japan will come under a barrage of criticism from its former war enemies. Making an unannounced visit on a date much earlier than anticipated has at least saved him from one round of trouble - that of pre-visit lobbying by neighbouring countries.
