Koizumi to visit Southeast Asia

Koizumi to visit Southeast Asia

JAPAN: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit five Southeast Asian nations in January to discuss issues such as Japan's support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, a Tokyo newspaper said on Monday.

The trip would include the Philippines and four countries he had hoped to visit in September -- Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, the evening Sankei Shimbun said.

Koizumi, who has faced criticism in Asia for paying homage to a controversial shrine for the war dead in August, canceled plans for the September trip after the attacks on the United States, saying he needed to be in Japan at a difficult time.

The latest trip, set for mid-January, reflects the importance Koizumi places on Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors, Sankei said, without citing specific sources. --Reuters