Sean asked what the Chinese press reaction to Koizumi's win in Japan has been. As you'd expect, there hasn't been much. After all, China can't stand the man.

Xinhua has a few reports on the Koizumi's landslide victory and a piece on Japan's foreign policy which mentions his pledge to normalise ties with North Korea but says nothing about China. An op-ed piece largely focusses on the postal reform with the only passage on foreign policy saying:

the LDP noted the need to improve ties with Asian neighbors. Yet, the points was rarely mentioned in Koizumi's campaign speeches.

After the voting, the premier stopped short of dismissing the possibility of paying a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine when he was answering questions on a live program of the public broadcaster NHK. His repeated visits to the war criminal-enshrining facility was the major stumbling block in relations with China and South Korea.