From ABS-CBN.com: “Japan said Monday it would issue a visa as scheduled for former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui to visit for sightseeing despite angry protests from China.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have already been chilled by a string of disputes, including one over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s regular visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are honored with other Japanese war dead.
‘We plan to issue a visa as scheduled,’ Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. He did not say when the outspoken Lee would receive his visa.
Beijing, which sees self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as a renegade Chinese province, has protested to Japan over its decision to let Lee visit and urged Tokyo to scrap the plan.”
