Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will continue his annual visits to a war shrine, a close aide said today, despite furious objections from China and other Asian countries who say the visits glorify Japan’s past wartime brutality.

China’s vice-premier called off a meeting with the Japanese prime minister and suddenly left Tokyo today – a day earlier than expected – but Beijing’s reasons for ending a visit aimed at repairing strained relations remained a mystery.

Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today sharply defended his visits to a Tokyo war shrine and told other countries not to interfere – a pointed reference to China, which says the shrine of glorifying Japan’s militarist past.