The house and office of a politician critical of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a war shrine burned down today, police said.

South Korea’s foreign minister today said it was inappropriate for him to travel to Japan now because of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s recent visit to a controversial war shrine, scuttling tentative plans for talks in Tokyo later this month.

Japan will revise a domestic law in a move to bar soccer hooligans from entering the country during next year’s World Cup, a government official said today.

Hundreds of students in South Korea have burned Japanese flags in protest over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a Tokyo war memorial shrine.