TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has demonstrated that he is a brilliant politician. His resounding victory in the Sept. 11 lower house Diet elections provides him with an opportunity to demonstrate his brilliance as an international statesman as well.

If Koizumi really does step down as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and hence as prime minister next year as promised, he will have much to look back upon with pride. He has moved Japan steadily along the road toward becoming a "normal nation" more willing and able to play an active role in international security affairs, putting "boots on the ground" in Iraq and personally negotiating the release of Japanese citizens long held hostage by Pyongyang. He has also moved Tokyo a step closer to a much-deserved seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), even if this effort thus far remains short of its ultimate goal.

One thing Koizumi will not be able to claim credit for, however, is better relations with Japan's two closest and most important neighbors. By almost any measurement, Tokyo's relations with Beijing and Seoul are considerably worse today than when Koizumi assumed office. While his Korean and Chinese counterparts must share the blame, primary responsibility rests with Koizumi himself. More importantly, the opportunity to reverse current downward trends also resides in the Japanese prime minister's hands, if he is willing to be as bold a diplomat as he has been a politician.

It's no secret that the leaderships in Beijing and Seoul were hoping for a Koizumi defeat. Having had that wish denied, they now appear intent on riding him out, not only allowing relations to deteriorate but, when possible, exploiting anti-Japan sentiments for their own political advantage. Koizumi could turn all this around in a way that would not only enhance Tokyo's international image but that would move it closer to its desired UNSC goal.

Obviously, I'm talking about Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine; a move that is both politically courageous and diplomatically counterproductive. I have long defended his right to go to the shrine, which contains the spirits of 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including most regrettably 14 World War II class A war criminals. During each of his personal visits, Koizumi has delivered a strong anti-war message, calling attention to Japan's militaristic past and pledging "never again."

Unfortunately, the symbolism of the visits has completely overshadowed the message, making it easy for Koizumi's detractors to politically exploit the visits. (This is not to imply that the visits do not offend the sensibilities of many in Korea, China, and, for that matter, in Japan; they do! But it is equally undeniable that they have become a political stick with which to beat the anti-Koizumi, anti-Japan drum).

The time has come for Prime Minister Koizumi to stop exercising his right to visit Yasukuni for the sake of the greater good ... but only if the leaders of China and South Korea are prepared to make an equally bold diplomatic gesture that will finally let all three countries focus on the future instead of being continually blinded by the past.

Koizumi should announce that he is willing, out of respect for his neighbor's sensitivities, to curtail his visits to Yasukuni. He should then call on Chinese President Hu Jintao and ROK President Roh Moo-hyun to meet with him in a three-way summit to discuss both history and the future.

As regards history, Koizumi should lend his personal endorsement to a recent textbook entitled "The Contemporary and Modern History of Three East Asian Countries" jointly produced by a commission of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scholars, which provides a balanced history of relations among the three states. The leaders of Korea and China should then be prepared to articulate to their own people the positive things Japan has done to promote economic development in their countries over the past 60 years. After all, history did not end in 1945. Since the end of World War II, no country in the world has had a better record of promoting peace and prosperity, in word and in deed, than Japan.

Beijing has used military force on more than one occasion against many of its neighbors, not to mention against its own people: Mao's policies in the second half of the 20th century accounted for the deaths of many more innocent Chinese civilians than did the Japanese Imperial Army in the first half; a fact conveniently overlooked in Chinese history books (which also imply that the U.S. and Republic of Korea, not North Korea, started the Korean War).

Koizumi should take the critical next step by announcing his decision to curtail future visits in return for a three-way summit, perhaps along the sidelines of the APEC Leaders' Meeting in Busan in November, which all three leaders are scheduled to attend. At such a meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi and Presidents Roh and Hu should endorse the common history project, stress the positive things Japan has done in helping the economic miracles in South Korea and China, and pledge to move their trilateral relations constructively forward.

Ralph A. Cossa is president of the Pacific Forum CSIS (pacforum@hawaii.rr.com), a Honolulu-based nonprofit research institute affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and senior editor of Comparative Connections, a quarterly electronic journal (www.csis.org/pacfor).