Series of disputes fray Japan-China ties

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T200746.htm

TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) - Relations between Japan and China are plummeting due to a number of disputes, several of which are listed below.

YASUKUNI SHRINE - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has paid annual visits since taking office in 2001 to this Tokyo shrine for war dead, viewed by critics at home and abroad as a symbol of Japan's state Shinto religion that mobilised the masses for war in the name of a divine emperor.

Fourteen "Class A" war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal in 1948, including wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, are enshrined, along with nearly 2.5 million of Japan's war dead.

Koizumi, who last visited the shrine on Jan. 1, 2004, has repeatedly said his visits are to pray for peace and that Japan should never go to war again, but each visit has prompted widespread anger in China and North and South Korea.

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