Nearly 50 percent of Japanese oppose Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine, a newspaper poll shows.

A survey conducted by the Asahi newspaper over the weekend showed on Tuesday that 49 percent of 1,876 respondents thought the visits to the Tokyo shrine should stop, while 39 percent thought they should continue. The remaining 12 percent of respondents were undecided.

The Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals responsible for Japan's aggression before and during World War II.

Koizumi has refused to rule out a visit to Yasukuni this year. He has gone to the shrine four times since taking office in 2001, the last time in January 2003.

Responding to a Kyodo News poll last week, nearly three in five Japanese said Koizumi should not visit war-related Yasukuni Shrine this year.

Editor: Yan