Japanese opposition party leaders have made remarks to criticize Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's chicanery on his visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine.

Koizumi said Monday in a House of Representatives Budget Committee session that "I don't understand why I should stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine," adding that "Other countries should not interfere with the ways countries pay tribute to the war dead."

Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party, said at a press conference Wednesday that Koizumi's attitude of care- nothing is merely haughtiness among furious criticism from China and South Korea.

That is not appropriate remarks by leader of a guilty country, Fukushima pointed out.

The largest opposition Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada also criticized Koizumi's remarks on Tuesday, saying that he lacks cognition as a premier.

Koizumi has paid four visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 Class-A World War II criminals along with Japanese war dead, since he took office in 2001, with the latest one on New Year's Day in 2004.

Source: Xinhua