Conspicuous by his absence yesterday at the Yasukuni shrine, where Japanese politicians traditionally pay their annual respects to the nation's war dead, was Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. While five senior cabinet ministers bowed deeply at the shrine, Mr Koizumi was just across the Imperial moat at the cavernous Nippon Budokan centre with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. In a formal ceremony commemorating the end of World War II and Japan's surrender, the prime minister offered an expression of regret for his nation's wartime aggression in Asia.
Whether the gesture amounts to a formal apology is open to question. In a Japanese context, however, it was a controversial statement considering that right-wing politicians such as Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara insist that Japan has apologised enough. It was also provocative to hardline nationalists because Mr Koizumi had elected not to go to the shrine - where war criminals are also commemorated - after a visit in April that was clearly designed to limit the international damage his attendance yesterday would have created.
After a summer in which relations between China and Japan have been strained, Mr Koizumi's statement provides at the very least cause for optimism that nationalists have not yet hijacked the country's China policy. Japan has certainly been showing increasing signs of anxiety as China's economic, diplomatic and military weight increases. China, for its part, has been voluble over trade restrictions placed on its goods. At the same time, both nations are coming to recognise their growing economic interdependency: Japan is China's largest trading partner and its second-biggest investor, while China is Japan's second-biggest trading partner after the United States.
Perhaps China will never truly forgive Japan and Tokyo will never be able to bring itself to make the kind of meaningful apology to its war victims that Germany long ago did. Yet each small step away from distrust and resentment is a step towards a more stable and prosperous region.
