JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI, the Prime Minister of Japan, attempted to appease his Asian neighbours and avoid angering Japanese nationalists yesterday by offering two separate statements on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

In a written statement, approved by his Cabinet, he repeated an unambiguous expression of “deep remorse and heartfelt apology” for Japan’s “colonisation and aggression” during the war.

But the similarly worded speech that he read aloud at a ceremony attended by Emperor Akihito and members of the Government omitted all references to colonialism, aggression or apology.

Although Mr Koizumi himself did not make an appearance, two members of his Cabinet and 47 MPs joined 200,000 Japanese visitors to the controversial Yasukuni shrine in central Tokyo, where the country’s war dead, including executed war criminals, are worshipped as Shinto deities.

There Japanese of all ages, including elderly veterans of the war in Imperial Army uniforms, offered quiet prayers of consolation to the dead, sang wartime songs and listened to speeches calling for a renewed spirit of pride and patriotism among young Japanese.

Right-wing ultra-nationalists on black lorries blared out slogans through loudspeakers angrily denouncing anti- Japanese demonstrations in China. In one extraordinary scene, student demonstrators who unveiled anti-war banners were punched, kicked and spat on by a mob of rightwingers under the noses of the police.

One trembling young man was led away to an ambulance, with blood streaming from his mouth. No attempt was made to identify or detain his assailants.

Two rightwingers and six left-wing activists were arrested during the course of the day.

“I come here every year to pray for my dead friends but I am really worried by the way that society is moving towards the Right,” Nobuyoshi Furuta, a 69-year-old retired businessman, said.

“If I said something to contradict those people, they would attack me. They use violence against those who disagree with them,” he added.

The wording of Mr Koizumi’s apology was based on that first used by his predecessor, Tomiichi Murayama, on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, in 1995.

But, like Mr Murayama ten years ago, he omitted its most apologetic elements from his public speech at the Nippon Budokan Hall in central Tokyo, which was broadcast on television news.

The result was two subtly different statements: one clear apology for overseas consumption and a watered-down domestic version stripped of anything that could be construed by nationalists as humiliatingly self-critical. The Government of China, which experienced bitter and violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in April, was scathing about the repetition of the old apology and damning about the visit to the shrine by Yuriko Koike, the Environment Minister, and Hidehisa Otsuji, the Health and Welfare Minister.

“As the biggest victim of Japan’s militaristic invasion, we strongly demand the Japanese Government to correctly view history with concrete actions, to reflect on its invasion and to no longer do things that hurt the victim countries’ people,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

There were 205,000 visitors at the Yasukunis shrine yesterday compared with 60,000 on the same day last year.

Several visitors said that they had been inspired to come because of the anti-Japanese feeling in China. “Sometimes you don’t realise how patriotic you are until something like that happens,” Koichi Sato, a 26-year-old factory worker, said.

“People have different opinions but for us the war was a war of liberation which freed Asian countries from Western colonialism.”

‘WE EXPRESS OUR DEEP REMORSE’

In his written statement, Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister, said: “Japan caused huge damage and suffering to many countries, especially the people of Asia, with its colonisation and aggression. Humbly accepting this fact of history, we again express our deep remorse and heartfelt apology and offer our condolences to the victims of the war at home and abroad.”

The word used for apology was “owabi”. It is a less formal word than “shazai”, the term favoured by China and by organisations of former British prisoners of war.

But Mr Koizumi’s spoken statement at the Nippon Budokan Hall, in the presence of Emperor Akihito and the media, omitted the references to “colonisation and aggression” and “apology”, referring only to “remorse”, rather than “deep remorse”.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?