Abe's Yasukuni Shrine visit whips up storm

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday made a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine that honours the nation's war dead - triggering strong and immediate protests from China and South Korea and prompting even the United States embassy in Tokyo to express "disappointment".

Mr Abe, in turn, insisted that he had no intention of hurting the feelings of the Chinese or Koreans, while government officials noted that the visit, the first by a serving prime minister in seven years, was made in a personal rather than official capacity.

Even so, the gesture seems certain to exacerbate tensions between Japan and its two close neighbours in East Asia as well as with other Asian countries that retain bitter memories of some of Japan's World War II actions.