Major Japanese business groups said recently that they hoped the next prime minister would improve ties with China and refrain from visiting the controversial war shrine, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Saturday.

"The prime minister should respect public opinion and use his political wisdom to solve the issue of the Yasukuni," Fujio Mitarai, chairman of Japan's biggest business lobby Japan Business Federation, or Nippon Keidanren, was quoted as saying on Friday.

"We hope the next premier would be prudent on the issue," Mitarai said at the closing of the group's summer seminar in Shizuoka prefecture.

Fumiaki Watari, chairman of Nippon Oil Corporation, also called for improvement of relations with China, which were strained due to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 top war criminals were honored.

"If political relations were not improved, we can expect the end of warm business ties with China," Watari was quoted by the paper as saying at the seminar, "the next premier should seek to normalize ties with China as soon as possible."

Similar comments were made at recent seminars of Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, and of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, according to the Yomiuri.

According to a poll published on Saturday in the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, a mere 5.5 percent of respondents supported Koizumi to visit the war shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's defeat day in the World War II. In contrast, 52.3 percent said they were against it, while 29.8 said the prime minister should decide the issue by himself.

Source: Xinhua