Former Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda reiterated on Friday in Indonesia that it is necessary for his country to improve ties with China and South Korea, according to news reaching here.

"Japan's relations with China and South Korea are not only regional issues, but on regional and global levels," Fukuda, a potential candidate for Japan's next prime minister, said in a speech in Jakarta, Kyodo News reported.

Fukuda suggested that the next Japanese prime minister should refrain from visiting the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, and show " political wisdom" to make a change to the current diplomatic situation.

Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated to the lowest level since their normalization in 1972 due to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, which honors more than 2 million Japanese war dead along with 14 Japan's wartime leaders charged as Class-A war criminals, who are responsible for the most atrocious crimes during Japan's war of aggression against its Asian neighbors.

Koizumi's trouble-making visits also strained Japan's relationships with other Asian countries and dragged Japan into an awkward diplomatic isolation.

Source: Xinhua