TOKYO, Nov 27: Japan’s foreign minister criticized China and South Korea for protesting against Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to a Tokyo shrine for the war dead, media reports said on Sunday.

Reports quoted Foreign Minister Taro Aso as also saying that Japan should not worry about how it is viewed by other countries or whether it has become isolated.

“The only countries in the world that talk about Yasukuni are China and South Korea,” financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) quoted Aso as saying, referring to the Yasukuni shrine, which honours some convicted war criminals including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo along with Japan’s war dead.

“We don’t have to worry about whether Japan is isolated or is not being liked,” Aso said in a speech on Saturday, Nikkei added.— Reuters