Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday he will not be affected by Chinese and South Korean protests over his visits to Yasukuni Shrine when he considers whether to set up a new war memorial.

"It is something Japan will consider on its own," Koizumi told reporters at his office when asked if he thinks creating a new war memorial would help ease criticisms from Japan's Asian neighbors over the issue.

The government will take various public views over the envisaged war memorial into consideration, he said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda suggested that the public opinion over the national memorial is still divided, citing the latest poll by Nippon Television Network Corp. that 41.1 percent support it while 45.4 percent oppose to it.

Hosoda said deliberation on the new war memorial will not help resolve the dispute over Koizumi's visits to the Shinto shrine honoring Class-A World War II criminals as well as war dead.

Whether Koizumi will stop the contentious shrine visits as requested by South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on Monday in Seoul is up to the premier as he has visited as a private citizen, Hosoda said at a press conference.

During their summit talks, Koizumi and Roh failed to bridge their differences over the Japanese leader's shrine visits but confirmed Japan's plan to consider setting up a new national war memorial as urged by South Korea.

Hosoda said the planned war memorial is unlikely to have an impact on Koizumi's decision on whether to visit Yasukuni Shrine again or the proposed new memorial instead, as he is expected to leave office in September 2006.

He said it has not yet been decided when the Japanese government will launch a study on the new memorial. "The government could start considering it any time in the future," Hosoda said.

Hosoda said once again that the government will listen to the public opinion over the issue, a refrain the government has used for the past few years and one that has seen the virtual shelving of an advisory panel report in 2002 that called for creating a secular national war memorial.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2005)